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Afghanistan boxer Ahmad Popal, 29, receives treatment after striking his head on the canvas following a knockdown in the sixth round of his Victorian bantamweight championship title bout against Tony Pappa in Melbourne, Australia. Popal died from his injury in hospital.

April 09

1783: Tipu Sultan of Mysore forces British to surrender Bednore.

1833: First US tax-supported public library is founded in Peterborough, New Hampshire.

1865: General Robert E. Lee surrenders to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, ending the American Civil War.

1918: Latvia proclaims independence.

1940: Germany invades Denmark and Norway during the Second World War.

1957: Suez Canal is cleared for all shipping.

1963: Winston Churchill is made an honorary US citizen.

1974: India, Pakistan and Bangladesh sign agreement to repatriate 195 Pakistani prisoners of war.

1978: Troops in Somalia crush attempted coup by army officers.

1986: West Berlin expels two Libyan diplomats, says it suspects Libya of being behind the bombing of a Berlin discotheque.

1988: China’s National Peoples Congress names Li Peng as premier.

1989: Sixteen people are reported killed as Soviet troops rush crowd of protesters in a central square of Georgian capital, Tbilisi.

1990: A three-decade ban on political activity is lifted in Nepal.

1991: Georgia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.

1992: Former Panamanian ruler Manuel Noriega is convicted in Miami of eight drug and racketeering charges.

1992: Sali Berisha is elected as Albania’s first non-communist president since World War II.

1995: President Alberto Fujimori wins a second term in Peru’s first peaceful polls since 1980.

1999: Niger President Ebrahim Bare Mainassara is assassinated at Niamey airport.

2003: US forces take control of Baghdad, ending Saddam Hussain’s rule over Iraq.

2005: Haitian police shoot and kill Remissainthe Ravix, a prominent rebel leader.

2006: A capsule carrying Brazil’s first astronaut, along with a Russian and an American, lands in the Kazakh steppe after separating from the international space.

2007: Iran announces a dramatic expansion of uranium enrichment, saying it has begun operating 3,000 centrifuges.

2012: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan makes historic trip to China and signs two nuclear agreements.

2014: A bomb blast at a fruit and vegetable market in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, killing at least 22 people.

2015: Satyam Computers founder B. Ramalinga Raju and nine others sentences to seven years in jail.

HIGHLIGHT

2001: Aussie boxer dies after heavy fall

An Australian boxer died after falling heavily and hitting his head during a bout, sparking renewed calls for the sport to be banned. Ahmad Popal, 29, had been on life support in a Melbourne hospital with his wife and young son at his bedside after the fall during a Victoria state bantamweight fight on April 06. “Ahmad Popal died this morning,” a St Vincent’s Hospital spokeswoman said. She said Popal had died without life support systems being turned off.

Television footage showed Popal fall and hit the back of his head on the canvas in the sixth round. He had taken a series of punches from opponent Tony Pappa. Popal fell backwards after the two boxers were in a clinch but he had not been knocked down by a punch.

Boxing promoter Peter Maniatis described Popal’s injury as a “freakish accident” and said boxing was not to blame. But medical authorities said boxing was outdated and should be banned.