2001 - A toy car exploded in northern Spain, killing a woman and blinding her 16-month-old grandson in a blast that officials had initially investigated as a possible bomb attack by the Basque separatist group ETA. The remote-controlled toy blew up in the Basque city of San Sebastian inside a car, seriously injuring the child and killing his 62-year-old grandmother. A Basque police spokesman said bomb experts were trying to work out whether the toy had been booby-trapped but that initial investigations had not detected traces of explosives. A photograph on one Spanish newspaper website of the car in which the child and his grandmother were sitting showed no sign of external damage. “We cannot confirm or rule out anything, “ the police spokesman said.
Other important events
1741 - Danish explorer Vitus Bering, on a mission sponsored by Russia, discovers Alaska.
1914 - German forces occupy Brussels during the First World War.
1915 - Italy declares war on Turkey.
1922 - The first Women’s Olympic Games are held in Paris.
1938 - Lou Gehrig hits his 23rd career grand slam – a record that stood for 75 years until it was broken by Alex Rodriguez.
1940 - Exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky is attacked in Mexico. He dies the next day.
1949 - Hungary adopts a Soviet-style constitution and is renamed the Hungarian People’s Republic.
1955 - Hundreds of people are killed in anti-French rioting in Morocco and Algeria.
1962 - The NS Savannah, the world’s first nuclear-powered civilian ship, embarks on its maiden voyage.
1968 - The Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact nations invade Czechoslovakia.
1971 - Heavy rains flood the Red River delta in Vietnam, killing at least 100,000 people.
1974 - US President Gerald Ford assumes office after Richard Nixon’s resignation.
1977 - Nasa launches the Voyager Two space probe.
1979 - Indian Prime Minister Charan Singh resigns after just 24 days in power.
1985 - Sikh political leader Harchand Singh Longowal is assassinated in Punjab.
1988 - A UN brokered ceasefire in the nearly eight-year-old Gulf war begins in Iran and Iraq.
1989 - Pleasure boat Marchioness sinks on the River Thames following a collision, killing 51 people.
1991 - The Republic of Estonia declares independence from the Soviet Union.
1993 - Russia’s Information Minister Mikhail Fedotov resigns over new press law.
1998 - US forces attack alleged terrorist camps in Afghanistan and a chemical plant in Sudan.
2006 - Iran test-fires ten surface-to-surface short-range missiles.
2008 - A Spanish jetliner crashes during takeoff at Madrid’s Barajas International Airport, killing 154.
2015 - Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras resigns after seven months in office.
