2006 - Hyundai Motor Group head Chung Mong Koo was arrested and sent to prison on charges of embezzlement and breach of trust following a month-old probe into a slush-fund scandal. Wearing a sky blue tie and dark business suit, a grim-looking Chung, flanked by two investigators, was led down the steps of the Prosecutor General’s Office and shoved into a waiting car to drive to Seoul Prison. “The accused keeps denying the charges and therefore, there is the possibility of the accused trying to go into hiding or destroying evidence,” the prosecutor said of the reasons why he decided to issue the warrant. Chung is charged with raising about 130 billion won ($138 million or Dh507.5 million) of slush funds through the group’s affiliates since 2001.
Other important events:
1770 - British navigator Captain James Cook, aboard Endeavour, lands in Australia, naming the natural harbour Botany Bay, now in the suburbs of Sydney.
1876 - Britain’s Queen Victoria is declared Empress of India.
1903 - A strong earthquake kills 2,200 in Turkey.
1936 - King Fouad of Egypt dies and is replaced on the throne by his son Farooq.
1945 - Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, are executed.
1952 - War with Japan ends as a treaty signed by the United States and 47 other countries takes effect.
1967 - Heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali refuses to be inducted into the Army.
1969 - Charles de Gaulle resigns as president of France
1982 - Gulf Cement Company is inaugurated in Ras Al Khaimah.
1984 - A new runway at Dubai International Airport is opened.
1988 - The roof of an Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 peels back during a flight from Hilo to Honolulu, killing a flight attendant and injuring 61 people.
1996 - A gunman slaughters 35 tourists near the ruins of a colonial prison in Tasmania, Australia.
2001 - A Russian rocket lifts off from Central Asia bearing the first space tourist, American businessman Dennis Tito.
2003 - Apple launches the iTunes Music Store.
2005 - First democratically elected government is formed in Iraq.
2012 - A massive fire guts more than 100 flats in a 40-storey Al Tayer Tower leaving hundreds of people homeless in the Al Nahda area in Sharjah.
2013 - Italian centre-left politician Enrico Letta is sworn in as Prime Minister.
