At the age of 77

• 04-January-2006 : Powers are transferred from Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to his deputy, Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, after Sharon suffers a massive hemorrhagic stroke.
• 18-December-2005 : Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is hospitalized after suffering a minor stroke. He is released from the hospital 2 days later.
• 21-November-2005 : The Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon, announces his resignation from Likud and his intention to form a new party devoted to peace in the region, Kadima, and asks the President of Israel to call a general election.
• 07-September-2005 : Hosni Mubarak, incumbent President of Egypt, wins the country's first multimultiparty presidential election.
• 26-October-2004 : Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King receive the Congressional Gold Medal. The Cassini probe passes within 1,200km of Titan.
• 05-December-1993 : Rafael Caldera Rodriguez is elected President of Venezuela for the second time, succeeding interim president Ramon Jose Velasquez.
• 18-October-1989 : The Communist leader of East Germany, Erich Honecker, is forced to step down as leader of the country after a series of health problems.
• 23-February-1980 : Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini states that Iran's parliament will decide the fate of the American embassy hostages.
• 04-February-1980 : Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini names Abolhassan Banisadr as president of Iran.
• 17-November-1979 : Iran hostage crisis: Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini orders the release of 13 female and African American hostages being held at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.