|
1424 |
The
English defeat the Scots and French at the Battle of
Verneuil during the Hundred Years’ War. |
|
1585 |
Spanish
forces led by the Duke of Parma take Antwerp after a
14-month siege in the Dutch War of Liberation. |
|
1896 |
George
Carmack discovers gold in a tributary of the Klondike River,
Canada, precipitating the famous gold rush. |
|
1943 |
Allied
forces gain complete control in Sicily in World War II. |
|
1943 |
Birth
of Robert De Niro, US actor and Oscar winner for The
Godfather Part II and Raging Bull. |
|
1945 |
Soekarno
claims independence for Indonesia from the Netherlands by
setting up the Provisional Indonesian Republican Government. |
|
1945 |
Provisional
French President Charles de Gaulle commutes the death
sentence of World War II collaborator Henri Philippe Petain
to life imprisonment. |
|
1950 |
The
Republic of Indonesia is restored. |
|
1952 |
Birth
of Nelson Piquet, Brazilian grand prix motor racing
champion. |
|
1957 |
Establishment
of a geophysical observatory in Viet Nam’s northern port
city of Hai Phong. |
|
1960 |
Gabon
achieves independence from France. |
|
1964 |
Tens
of thousands demonstrate in Sai Gon, demanding the
resignation of Nguyen Khanh, who, supported by the US,
proclaimed himself president and prime minister after a coup
d’etat. The demonstrators also protest against US
intervention in South Viet Nam. |
|
1966 |
Vietnamese
Liberation forces attack a US motorised regiment in Da Nang,
inflicting over 500 casualties, destroying 110 vehicles and
burning four million litres of petrol. |
|
1968 |
Vietnamese
liberation forces begin a major operation against US-Sai Gon
forces in Tay Ninh Province, inflicting over 6,500
casualties, destroying 90 vehicles and artillery pieces and
downing 26 aircrafts. |
|
1972 |
Vietnamese
liberation forces overrun a major US-Sai Gon base at Que
Son, Quang Nam Province, destroying two regiments, 200
aircraft and 60 military vehicles. |
|
1976 |
A
severe earthquake shakes the Philippines island of Mindanao,
leaving about 8,000 people dead. |
|
1985 |
Sixty
people die and 100 are injured in car-bomb explosion in
Christian East Beirut. |
|
1987 |
Adolf
Hitler’s deputy Rudolf Hess is found dead in his cell in
Spandau Prison, after hanging himself with an electric cord. |
|
1988 |
Pakistan
President Zia ul-Haq and the US ambassador to Pakistan,
Arnold Raphel, are killed when Zia’s plane explodes after
take-off. |
|
1996 |
France’s
first woman in space, Claudie Andre-Deshays, takes off from
the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for a 16-day
scientific mission aboard Russia’s orbiting Mir space
station. |
|
1996 |
Ruth
Perry is chosen by a meeting of West African heads of state
to chair Liberia’s ruling council, thus becoming Africa’s
first woman head of state. |
|
1999 |
A
violent earthquake measuring 7.4 on the Richter scale
strikes the western Turkish city of Izmir, 90km southeast of
Istanbul, killing at least 17,118 people. |
|
2000 |
Death
of Franco Donatoni, Italian composer and one of the leaders
of the modernist wing of contemporary music. —
AP/REUTERS/VNS |
