Today in History
March 22
1790 Thomas Jefferson becomes America’s first secretary of state.
1873 Spain abolishes slavery.
1895 Auguste and Louis Lumiere show their first movie to an audience in Paris.
1917 The US becomes the first nation to recognise the new provisional government in Russia.
1934 The first Masters Tournament is held at the Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, US.
1945 The Arab League is founded in Egypt.
1946 Britain signs a treaty granting independence to Jordan.
1960 Arthur Leonard Schawlow and Charles Hard Townes receive the first patent for a laser.
1967 Muhammad Ali knocks out Zora Folley in seventh round of a heavyweight boxing title fight in New York.
1978 Karl Wallenda, the 73-year-old patriarch of The Flying Wallendas high-wire act, falls to his death in Puerto Rico.
1989 Delegates from 105 countries adopt a draft UN treaty to control international transport of dangerous waste.
1990 The Dh28 million Souq Al Markazi is inaugurated in Ajman.
1991 Iraqi and allied military commanders agree on a quick return of thousands of Gulf War prisoners and Kuwaiti detainees.
1992 USAir Flight 405 crashes shortly after take-off from LaGuardia Airport in New York City, killing 27 people.
1994 A Russian Airbus A-310 crashes in Siberia en route to Hong Kong.
1995 Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov returns to Earth after spending 438 days on the Mir space station.
1996 Goran Persson becomes Prime Minister of Sweden.
1998 Albanians in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo hold elections for a shadow government.
2000 A powerful blast heavily damages a rail bridge in northern Kosovo.
2004 Hamas leader Shaikh Ahmad Yassin is killed in an Israeli helicopter strike in Gaza.
2005 Israel completes the handover to the West Bank town of Tulkarem to Palestinian control.
2007 Egypt appoints 31 women judges for the first time.
2008 Taiwan’s opposition candidate Ma Ying-jeou crushes his rival in presidential elections.
2013 Lebanese Prime Minister Najeeb Mikati resigns.
2014 A collision between two passenger buses and a petrol tanker kills 35 people in Gadani district, south-west Pakistan.
2016 A series of bombings rip through Brussels airport and a subway train, killing around 35 people.
HIGHLIGHT
2002
Thatcher retreats from public life
Britain’s former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, whose iconic status has long outlived her years in office, is to retreat from public life after a series of small strokes, her office said. It said she would never again make a speech in public and would reduce her programme on the advice of doctors. They told her future strokes “can neither be predicted nor prevented,” and that public speaking, in particular, placed “undue strain” on her. The announcement came after Thatcher complained of feeling unwell, forcing her then to cancel her engagements over the next few days. A few weeks ago she announced she would not be going to celebrations in the Falklands marking the 20th anniversary of their recapture from Argentina. She said then that, while she was “fit and well,” the journey would be too much for her husband Sir Denis, 86. Thatcher was believed to be resting at her London home.
