2006 — American Floyd Landis became the latest casualty in the war against doping after a second drugs sample confirmed a positive test for excessive amounts of the male sex hormone testosterone on the Tour de France. The American is now likely to become the first winner of the world’s most famous cycling race to lose his title because of a positive dope test and he also faces a two-year ban. A statement issued by the International Cycling Union (UCI) said Landis’s B sample taken after his win in the 17th stage on July 20 had confirmed a doping offence. “For us, he cannot be the Tour de France winner anymore,” Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme. “Technically we cannot say he has lost his title but he has soiled the yellow jersey.” Landis was immediately sacked by his Swiss team Phonak.
Other important events
1772 - Rulers of Russia, Prussia and Austria sign the first of three partitions ending Poland’s sovereign rule until 1918.
1861 - US federal government levies an income tax for the first time.
1949 - Earthquake in Ecuador kills 6,000.
1953 - Operation Big Switch takes place In Panmunjom, Korea, towards the end of the Korean War.
1962 - African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela is arrested.
1963 - US, Britain and the Soviet Union sign a treaty in Moscow banning nuclear tests in atmosphere, space and under water.
1965 - New Zealand grants the South Pacific Cook Islands self-government.
1977 - Ten family members of the late Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie escape from house arrest in Addis Ababa and reach Sweden.
1984 - A Bangladesh airliner crashes in heavy rain while landing at Dhaka’s Zia international airport killing all 49 passengers
1990 - US troops intervene in Liberia’s civil war to rescue about 70 Americans in Monrovia following hostage threat by rebels.
1992 - Nelson Mandela leads 100,000 blacks in Pretoria in a protest to end white rule.
1994 - Nato jets attack Serbs near Sarajevo after they seized a tank and other weapons from a UN depot and fire on a UN helicopter.
1995 - US and Vietnam formally establish diplomatic ties.
1999 - Dubai’s newest theme park, Wild Wadi, next to the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, opens.
2000 - Dubai Millennium retires after suffering a severe fracture on his right hind leg.
2003 - A huge car bomb tears through one of the top hotels in Jakarta, Indonesia, killing 14 people in the second major attack.
2006 - The Taiwanese government breaks off diplomatic relations with Chad.
2008 - Netherlands’ striker Ruud van Nistelrooy retires from international football.
2009 - 87 people are missing after a ferry boat flipped near the Pacific Ocean in the borders of Tonga.
2012 - Nasa’s Curiosity rover lands on Mars.
2013 - A Turkish court sentences a former military commander General Ilker Basbug to life in prison.
