1998 - A Tamil Tigers suicide squad crashed through roadblocks and set off a truck bomb outside a fabled Buddhist temple in central Kandy, killing 13 people and wounding 23. The dead included the three-person suicide squad of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the Defence Ministry said. It said a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, two automatic rifles and ammunition were recovered from the blast site. The truck exploded opposite the sacred Temple of the Tooth, mainly Buddhist Sri Lanka’s holiest shrine that houses a sacred tooth of Buddha. The tooth relic was safe, police said. The blast shattered windows of houses as far as half a mile away, residents said. Kandy was tense as hundreds of protesting youths waving national flags took to the streets.
Other important events
1802 - Napoleon Bonaparte becomes president of the Italian Republic.
1890 - American journalist Nellie Bly completes her famous journey around the world in 72 days.
1915 - Alexander Graham Bell inaugurates US transcontinental telephone service.
1924 - First Winter Olympic Games open in Chamonix, France.
1942 - Thailand, allied to Japan, declares war on Britain and the US.
1944 - The Battle for Cassino begins in Italy during the Second World War.
1949 - The first Emmy Awards are presented at the Hollywood Athletic Club.
1955 - The Soviet Union ends its state of war with Germany.
1959 - Britain signs trade pact with East Germany.
1971 - Himachal Pradesh becomes 18th Indian state.
1975 - Shaikh Mujibur Rahman abolishes parliamentary rule in Bangladesh and assumes absolute powers as President.
1980 - Abu Hassan Bani-Sadr is elected President of Iran.
1987 - West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl wins a second term.
1990 - American actress Ava Gardner dies of pneumonia at the age of 67.
1995 - India and South Africa sign Treaty of Cooperation.
2002 - India test-fires an intermediate-range ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear war-head.
2006 - Palestinian group Hamas wins landslide victory in parliamentary elections.
2009 - Sri Lankan government captures rebels’ last major stronghold of Mullaittivu.
2010 - Saddam Hussain’s right-hand man Ali Hassan Al Majid, known as ‘Chemical Ali’, is hanged in Baghdad.
2011 - In Egypt, tens of thousands of people participate in a ‘day of revolt’ to protest against the government.
2014 - China’s Li Na wins the women’s singles final of the Australian Open tennis.
2015 - Greek singer Demis Roussos dies in Athens.
2017 - Pakistan successfully test-fires a nuclear-capable surface-to-surface ballistic missile, with a maximum range of 2,200km.
