2001 - Bangladesh and India sign an agreement to resume passenger train services between the neighbours after a gap of 36 years. The agreement came as a trial train from India arrived at a town near Dhaka a day after one from Bangladesh travelled to Gedde, near the eastern Indian city of Kolkata. Both countries agreed to operate regular train services “as soon as possible” under the agreement, which was signed by Ataur Rahman, Head of Bangladesh Railways, and Manilal Tripathi, the Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka. Passenger trains will initially run between Kolkata in India’s West Bengal state and the Tangail district, 72km north of Dhaka, the Bangladesh capital. Train services between the South Asian neighbours were suspended after the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war.
Other important events
1856 - American adventurer William Walker declares himself president of Nicaragua.
1869 - A parliamentary system is adopted by Napoleon III of France.
1920 - The Soviet-Lithuanian Peace Treaty is signed.
1941 - The British-Soviet mutual aid pact of the Second World War is signed.
1944 - Britain’s Royal Air Force becomes the first air force to use jet aircraft.
1957 - Prince Karim, a 20-year-old student at Harvard University, becomes Aga Khan and leader of Ismaili Muslims.
1960 - France agrees to independence of Dahomey, Niger, Upper Volta, Ivory Coast, Chad, Central Africa and Congo.
1962 - The Rolling Stones give their first public performance at the Marquee Club in London.
1971 - The Australian Aboriginal flag is flown for the first time.
1977 - The US space shuttle Enterprise completes its first free flight test.
1983 - Britain and China begin negotiations on the return of Hong Kong to China.
1990 - Boris Yeltsin resigns from the Soviet Union’s Communist Party.
1991 - At least 35 people are burned to death at a firecracker factory in Tamil Nadu, India.
1993 - Hokkaido earthquake and tsunami strike Japan, killing at least 230 people.
1998 - France wins the football World Cup for the first time.
2000 - The long-delayed International Space Station’s service module is lifted into orbit.
2005 - Prince Albert II of Monaco accedes to the throne of a 700-year-old dynasty.
2006 - Hezbollah captures two Israeli soldiers and kills eight others in a cross-border raid.
2007 - Dubai unveils Emirates NBD, a merger of Emirates Bank and National Bank of Dubai with an approximate market capitalisation of Dh41.3 billion.
2008 - Syria and Lebanon agree to set up diplomatic ties.
2009 - After 28 years of waiting, Mark Webber wins the Formula One German Grand Prix for Australians.
2011 - Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai’s half-brother Ahmad Wali Karzai is assassinated by a close associate.
