On This Day in History: Black and white leaders in South Africa approved a new democratic constitution

Following are some of the major events to have occurred on November 18:

1905 – Prince Charles of Denmark was elected first king of Norway after the restoration of its independence. He took the old Norse name of Haakon VII.

1928 – Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse made his first appearance at the Colony Theatre in New York in a film called “Steamboat Willie”.

1935 – The League of Nations’ economic sanctions on Italy for its invasion of Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) took effect.

1978 – Jim Jones, an American pastor, led 914 of his followers to their deaths at Jonestown, Guyana by taking cyanide-laced drinks. Cult members who refused were shot.

1993 – Black and white leaders in South Africa approved a new democratic constitution which gave blacks the vote.

2002 – James Coburn, American film actor, died. Among his most notable films were the spy spoof “Our Man Flint” and his 1960 breakthrough “The Magnificent Seven.”

2003 – The Supreme Judicial Court in Massachusetts ruled the state could not deny homosexuals the right to marry, making Massachusetts the first U.S. state to recognise gay marriage.

2004 – Russia formally ratified the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, clearing the way for the environment pact to come into force in February 2005.

2005 – At least 74 people were killed when suicide bombers blew themselves up inside two Shi’ite mosques in the eastern Iraqi town of Khanaqin.

2005 – Burkina Faso’s Blaise Compaore stormed to a third consecutive term with a landslide victory in presidential polls.

2007 – A methane explosion rips through a colliery in Ukraine’s Donbass coalfield, killing 100 miners in underground shafts engulfed by fire and smoke.