WHAT ALL HAPPENED MAY TO OCTOBER 1991
Find out what all happened May to October 1991

Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. (24. August 1991)

The Greek cruise ship MTS Oceanos sinks off the Wild Coast of South Africa. (4. August 1991)

Askar Akayev, previously chosen President of Kyrgyzstan by republic's Supreme Soviet, is confirmed president in an uncontested poll. (12. October 1991)

Boris Yeltsin takes office as the first elected President of Russia. (10. July 1991)

Israel conducts Operation Solomon, evacuating Ethiopian Jews to Israel. (24. May 1991)

The Warsaw radio mast, at one time the tallest construction ever built, collapses. (8. August 1991)

Mount Unzen erupts in Kyūshū, Japan, killing 43 people, all of them either researchers or journalists. (3. June 1991)

Estonia, North Korea, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia join the United Nations. (17. September 1991)

The name Saint Petersburg is restored to Russia's second largest city, which had been renamed Leningrad since 1924. (6. September 1991)

Turkmenistan achieves independence from the Soviet Union. (27. October 1991)

Croatians vote for independence in a referendum. (19. May 1991)

Lauda Air Flight 004, a Boeing 767, crashes in an area of western Thailand after a thrust reverser malfunction. All 223 people aboard are killed. (26. May 1991)

Dissolution of the Soviet Union, August Coup: Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is placed under house arrest while on holiday in the town of Foros, Ukraine. (19. August 1991)

The South African cricket team is readmitted into the International Cricket Council following the end of Apartheid. (10. July 1991)

Latvia declares renewal of its full independence after the occupation of Soviet Union. (21. August 1991)

The German Bundestag votes to move the capital from Bonn back to Berlin. (20. June 1991)

Former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated by a female suicide bomber near Madras. (21. May 1991)

Moldova declares independence from the USSR. (27. August 1991)

In the Philippines, Mount Pinatubo erupts in the second largest volcanic eruption of the 20th Century. In the end, over 800 people die. (15. June 1991)

The Supreme Council of Azerbaijan adopts a declaration of independence from the Soviet Union. (18. October 1991)