2002 - German police commandos stormed the Iraqi Embassy in Berlin, freeing two captives and bringing a peaceful end to a five-hour hostage-taking by a previously unknown Iraqi dissident group seeking Saddam Hussein’s ouster. Police said five people were detained. No one was hurt during the operation, but police said at least one hostage was injured when the group took over the building. No shots were fired when police liberated the building. The suspects took four people hostage, including acting ambassador Shamil Mohammad. Two were released during the ordeal, one who suffered eye irritation when the hostage-takers used pepper spray and a second who went into shock. The other two were released when police stormed the building.
Other important events
1741 - Danish explorer Vitus Bering, on a mission sponsored by Russia, discovers Alaska.
1915 - Italy declares war on Turkey.
1922 - The first Women’s Olympic Games are held in Paris.
1940 - Exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky is attacked in Mexico. He dies the next day.
1942 - A team of chemists led by American Glenn T. Seaborg isolates a visible amount of plutonium for the first time.
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.
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 - The 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.
1995 - At least 300 people are killed when a passenger express ram into a stationary train near the Ferozabad railway station in northern India.
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.
2016 - Usain Bolt completes unprecedented ‘triple triple’ as Jamaica win gold in men’s 4x100-metre relay.
