Chemical tanker sinks after collision in Japan
2002 - A Japanese chemical tanker sank after colliding with a container ship, prompting fears of a leak of its cargo. The 411-tonne Eiwa Maru, carrying 500 tonnes of the thinner xylene, hit the 52,103-tonne Panamanian-registered Ever Reward, 30km off Japan’s Izu peninsula. There were no indications of a major leak, around seven hours after the collision and the sinking of the tanker. The spokesman for the Yokohama disaster prevention centre said that while xylene can be toxic in high concentrations, it is not water-soluble and any that leaked out would float to the surface. The Eiwa Maru’s crew of four escaped on a life raft.
October 5
1864 - The city of Calcutta (now Kolkata) is flooded and almost totally battered by a cyclone, resulting in the deaths of more than 60,000 people.
1908 - Ferdinand I declares Bulgaria’s independence from the Ottoman Empire.
1910 - Portugal overthrows monarchy, proclaiming itself a republic.
1930 - American pilot Laura Ingalls becomes the first woman to fly across North America, from New York to Glendale, California, in 30 hours, 27 minutes.
1944 - Suffrage is extended to women in France.
1947 - The first televised White House address is given by US President Harry Truman.
1962 - The Beatles’ first hit, Love Me Do, is released in Britain.
1965 - Pakistan severs diplomatic relations with Malaysia.
1970 - Egypt’s only political party names Anwar Sadat to succeed late President Gamal Abdul Nasser.
1983 - Lech Walesa, leader of Poland’s Solidarity labour movement, wins Nobel Peace Prize.
1984 - Marc Garneau becomes the first Canadian in space, aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger.
1986 - American Eugene Hasenfus is captured by Sandinista soldiers after the weapons plane he is in is shot down over southern Nicaragua.
1992 - IBM launches its ThinkPad series of laptop computers.
1993 - China breaks moratorium on nuclear testing.
1994 - Forty-eight bodies are discovered in two locations in Switzerland after a cult’s mass suicide-murder.
1996 - Seymour Cray, American electrical engineer and designer of supercomputers, dies.
1997 - Sixteen schoolchildren and their driver are killed in Algeria when their bus is attacked by gunmen.
1999 - At least 31 people are killed when two commuter trains collide in Britain’s worst rail crash in more than 10 years.
2000 - The UAE joins the global anti-sanctions solidarity campaign by sending an Emirates Boeing to embargo-hit Baghdad.
2003 - Akhmad Kadyrov becomes the first President of the Chechen Republic.
2004 - Emirates airline and Arsenal Football Club sign the biggest club sponsorship deal in English football history.
2009 - A passenger train derails during heavy rains near the coastal Thai city of Hua Hin, killing at least 10 people.
2011 - Aakash, the world’s cheapest tablet, is launched in India.
2012 - German driver Michael Schumacher announces his retirement from Formula One for the second time and at the age of 43.
2015 - Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell dies at the age of 67 in Gothenburg.
