This Day in History: The US declared war on Germany in World War One

The following are some of the major events to have occurred on April 6:

1917 – The United States declared war on Germany in World War One.

1994 – Argentine soccer star Diego Maradona announces retirement from the game.

1998 – Tammy Wynette, known as the First Lady of Country Music and famous for her hit “Stand by Your Man”, died at the age of 55.

2000 – Former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif was sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of terrorism and hijacking. The convictions were subsequently quashed and Sharif is now the main opposition leader.

2001 – The U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague handed a warrant demanding the handover of former president Slobodan Milosevic to Yugoslavia’s justice minister.

2004 – Lithuania’s parliament voted president Rolandas Paksas out of office for his links with Russian business and intelligence, making him the first European leader to be removed through impeachment.

2005 – Monaco’s Prince Rainier III, who turned one of the world’s smallest states from a faded gambling centre into a billionaires’ haven, died aged 81 after ruling for nearly 55 years.

2005 – Parliament elected the veteran Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani as Iraq’s president, making him the first non-Arab president of any Arab state.

2006 – An 1841 Venetian landscape by J M W Turner sold in New York for $35.8 million, becoming the most expensive British painting sold at a Christie’s auction.

2006 – A wooden boat carrying some 250 people on an annual pilgrimage sank off Djibouti. At least 109 people died.

(Reuters)