On this day: Mahmoud Abbas becomes leader of Fatah in 2004

Following are some of the major events to have occurred on November 25:

1935 – King George II returns to Greece as monarch.

1936 – Germany and Japan sign anti-Comintern pact.

1952 – Agatha Christie’s play “The Mousetrap” opened in London. Still playing to audiences today, it holds the record for the longest continuous run of any show in the world.

1963 – U.S. President John F. Kennedy was buried with full military honours at Arlington National Cemetery, three days after his assassination.

1974 – The Burmese diplomat U Thant died. He became U.N. secretary-general after the death of Dag Hammarskjold in 1961, and held the post until 1971.

1997 – Malawi’s former leader, Kamuzu Banda, died aged 99. As Hastings Banda, he became president in 1966 and proclaimed himself ruler for life in 1971. He was defeated in 1994 in Malawi’s first democratic election.

1999 – Six-year-old Cuban Elian Gonzalez survives smuggling boat shipwreck on its way to the United States, sparking a controversial custody case between the two countries.

2001 – Advanced Cell Technology Inc. of Massachusetts became the first organisation to report the successful cloning of a human embryo. The company said it did not intend to create a human being but to use the stem cells to treat disease.

2004 – The dominant Palestinian political faction, Fatah, approved Mahmoud Abbas as its candidate to succeed Yasser Arafat, who had died on Nov. 11.

2005 – Richard Burns, the only Englishman to win the world rally championship, died of a brain tumour at the age of 34.

2015 – Pope Francis arrives in Kenya on historic African visit.

(Reuters)