2001 - Nato sent its first small detachment of advance troops into Macedonia to take a hard look at the precarious situation and prepare for the full deployment of a mission to collect rebel weapons. A transport plane carrying 15 French support troops arrived in the capital, Skopje. A contingent of about 40 members of a British air assault brigade was to follow the previous evening, and the Czech Republic sent in 120 soldiers to protect the advance party. About 350 more British soldiers will follow over the weekend to lay the groundwork for the British-led mission. The French soldiers, who were wearing green and maroon berets, quickly marched off the tarmac, ignoring some 100 journalists who had assembled to watch the arrivals.
Other important events
1743 - Sweden cedes southern Finland to Russia in the Peace of Abo.
1859 - The first airmail in the US, sent by balloon, takes off from Lafayette, Indiana.
1879 - Ferdinand Lesseps of France forms the Panama Canal Company.
1920 - Romania joins Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia in alliance.
1945 - Indonesia declares its independence from the Netherlands.
1976 - Tidal wave on the Philippines island of Mindanao leaves an estimated 8,000 people dead or missing.
1980 - Diplomatic officials close the British Embassy in Iran because of hostile demonstrations.
1985 - A car packed with dynamite explodes outside a supermarket in Beirut, killing more than 50 people and wounding 100.
1988 - Pakistan’s President Zia-ul-Haq and US Ambassador Arnold Raphel are killed when the Pakistani military plane they were travelling in explodes.
1993 - Miners massacre 73 Yanomami Indians in the Brazilian Amazon.
1994 - Riots ensue as King Letsie III of Lesotho dissolves the country’s first democratically-elected government, which had been operating for 20 years.
1995 - A bomb explodes at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France.
1996 - Ruth Perry becomes Africa’s first female head of state when she is chosen by a meeting of West African leaders to chair Liberia’s ruling council.
1998 - US President Bill Clinton admits to an affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
2002 - Shaikh Hamad Bin Eisa Al Khalifa becomes the first Bahraini leader to visit Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
2004 - Shaikh Ahmad Bin Hasher Al Maktoum wins an Olympic gold medal at the men’s double trap shooting in Athens.
2007 - A massive fire rages in Sharjah’s Port Khalid area, sending flames dozens of feet high.
2008 - Israel’s Cabinet votes to release 200 Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture.
2013 - Jamaican athlete Usain Bolt wins his third successive world 200-metre title at the World Athletics Championships in Moscow.
