Fire in high-rise kills 14 in Paris
2005 - A fire killed 14 people in a suspected arson attack in a high-rise apartment block in Paris, the third major blaze in the French capital in just more than a week. Two children were among the victims, most of whom were killed by smoke and fumes, and at least 13 people were hurt in the low-rent 18-storey building in the southern suburbs of the capital. Local officials said they suspected the fire was started deliberately in a letter box in the entrance of the building and were looking for four young people whom witnesses saw in the hallway just before the blaze started. Many victims were choked or suffocated by the fumes in extremely high temperatures after opening their doors. People who stayed in their apartments were safe.
September 4
1781 - Los Angeles is founded by Spanish settlers.
1882 - The Edison Electric Illuminating Company fires up its first central generator, supplying power to about 800 light bulbs in New York.
1888 - American inventor George Eastman patents the Kodak camera, the first to use roll film instead of glass plates.
1932 - France and Poland sign mutual assistance agreement.
1939 - South Africa and Canada declare war on Germany.
1940 - The destroyer Greer becomes the first US vessel fired on in Second World War.
1944 - Finland breaks diplomatic contact with Nazi Germany.
1957 - Egypt and Syria form economic union.
1960 - Hurricane Donna kills 148 in Caribbean and US.
1972 - US swimmer Mark Spitz wins a record seventh Olympic gold medal in the 400-metre relay at the Munich Summer Olympics.
1975 - Representatives of Egypt and Israel sign interim peace agreement in Geneva.
1990 - Prime ministers of South and North Korea meet for the first time.
1998 - Google is founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, students at Stanford University, California.
1999 - East Timor votes for independence.
2006 - Stingray barb kills Australian naturalist ‘Crocodile Hunter’ Steve Irwin.
2007 - Former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani is elected head of Iran’s Assembly of Experts.
2009 - A US jet drops bombs on two tanker trucks hijacked by the Taliban before dawn, killing more than 70 people.
2011 - Heavy rains and mudslides from powerful Typhoon Talas kills at least 15 people in Japan.
