1991 - As many as 470 people died when a ferry taking Egyptians home from Saudi Arabia hit a reef and sank in a Red Sea storm. It was one of the world’s worst passenger shipping disasters. Egyptian Prime Minister Atef Sedki said on a quayside where survivors were resting in hastily-erected tents, where 202 people had been brought ashore and a further 59 were on their way. Egyptian state television said there were 649 people on the 4,711-tonne ferry Salem Express. Authorities in the Saudi port of Jeddah, from where the ship set sail, said it was carrying 650. The Salem Express had been heading for Safaga and then on to Suez at the northern end of the Red Sea. Egyptian naval ships, four helicopters and three Egyptian air force C-130 Hercules planes took part in the rescue.
Other important events:
1640 - Duke of Braganca is crowned John IV, the first king of Portugal after 60 years of Spanish rule.
1806 - Napoleon Bonaparte enters Warsaw, Poland.
1916 - French defeat Germans in Battle of Verdun during the First World War.
1914 - A gas explosion in the Mitsubishi Hojyo coal mine in Kyushu, Japan, kills 687 miners.
1952 - China rejects India’s plan for Korean armistice.
1957 - UN rejects Greece’s proposal that Cyprus is entitled to self-determination.
1961 - Former Nazi Adolf Eichmann is sentenced to death in occupied Jerusalem.
1970 - Soviet spacecraft starts sending messages from planet Venus.
1979 - Deposed Shah of Iran goes into temporary exile in Panama.
1982 - Spain reopens border with Gibraltar.
1983 - The US invasion of Grenada ends and the last US combat soldiers are withdrawn.
1985 - Carlos Romulo, one of the founders of the United Nations in 1945, dies.
1989 - Manuel Noriega is named head of government and declares Panama in a state of war with US.
1993 - British Prime Minister John Major and his Irish counterpart Albert Reynolds sign Downing Street Declaration.
1994 - John Bruton becomes prime minister of Ireland.
1997 - Eighty-five people are killed as a Tajik Air charter flight crashes near Sharjah Airport.
1999 - After half a century of bitter conflict, Israel and Syria open their highest-level talks ever.
2000 - Ukraine shuts down the last nuclear reactor at Chernobyl.
2001 - The Leaning Tower of Pisa re-opens to the public since 1990.
2005 - Iraqi votes in historic election to choose a new government.
2007 - The United Nations Summit at Bali reaches a historic agreement on global warming.
2008 - Abhisit Vejjajiva is elected as Thailand’s Prime Minister.
2013 - Former South African president Nelson Mandela is buried in Qunu, South Africa.
2015 - European Parliament votes to allow Emirati citizens visa-free access to Schengen states.
