1996 - Germany won the European Championship for the third time when they beat the Czech Republic 2-1 in the final with the first “golden goal” of the tournament. Substitute Oliver Bierhoff hit the deciding goal in the fifth minute of extra time. Under new rules, the first goal in the extra period ended the match — but the instant finish had not been achieved during any of the previous knockout matches. The Czechs, 200-1 outsiders after Germany defeated them 2-0 in their opening game, had gone ahead through a 59th-minute penalty by Patrik Berger. But Germany refused to surrender and were rewarded 14 minutes later when Bierhoff popped up to head the equaliser. In the fifth minute of extra time, Bierhoff scored the first sudden-death “golden goal”.
Other important events
1652 - England declares war on the Dutch.
1876 - Serbia declares war on Turkey.
1894 - Korea declares independence from China.
1936 - Margaret Mitchell’s epic Gone with the Wind is published.
1960 - Belgian Congo becomes the independent Republic of the Congo.
1965 - India and Pakistan sign a ceasefire agreement.
1974 - The mother of American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr is killed in Atlanta.
1975 - Muhammad Ali defeats Joe Bugner in Malaysia.
1985 - The 39 American hostages seized in the hijacking of a TWA jet are released after 17 days in captivity.
1989 - Sudanese Prime Minister Sadiq Al Mahdi is held under house arrest after Omar Hassan Al Bashir takes power in a bloodless coup.
1990 - The Soviet government resumes oil shipments to Lithuania one day after that republic’s parliament agrees to suspend declaration of independence.
1996 - Radovan Karadzic, leader of the Bosnian Serbs and a suspected war criminal, steps aside, handing over to a nationalist deputy.
1997 - China regains control of Hong Kong.
1998 - An American F-16 fires on an Iraqi missile site that had threatened British warplanes.
2005 - The 1.5km Dubai Airport tunnel is inaugurated.
2006 - Kuwait’s Islamist-led opposition gains a parliamentary majority in historic elections.
2007 - Two men ram a blazing car into the main terminal of Glasgow Airport.
2008 - Natalie Coughlin set a new world record of 59.03 seconds for women’s 100-metre backstroke.
2009 - A Yemenia Airways plane carrying 154 passengers crash-lands in the Indian Ocean, killing 153 people.
2010 - Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino is sworn in as the 15th President of the Philippines.
2012 - Mohammad Mursi is sworn in as Egyptian President in Cairo
2013 - United States President Barack Obama visits Nelson Mandela in his hometown.
2014 - India launches five foreign satellites.
