January 09
1719 France declares war on Spain.
1792 Russia ends war with Turkey with Treaty of Jassy.
1799 Income tax is introduced in the UK.
1816 British inventor Sir Humphry Davy tests his miners’ safety lamp.
1878 Umberto I becomes King of Italy.
1912 US Marines invade Honduras.
1927 Laurier Palace Theatre fire, Montreal, Canada, 78 children are killed.
1945 US forces invade Luzon in Philippines during the Second World War.
1951 The UN headquarters in New York City, USA is officially opened.
1957 British Prime Minister Anthony Eden resigns due to ill health.
1962 Soviet Union and Cuba sign trade pact.
1970 Constitution of Singapore is enacted.
1973 Rhodesia closes its borders with Zambia to try to cut off black liberation forces.
1978 Islamic revolution erupts in Iran.
1979 India and East Germany sign a six-year agreement on economic, technical, industrial and scientific co-operation.
1981 Francisco Balsamao is elected President of Portugal.
1982 North and South Yemen agree to merge into a single state.
1986 British Defence Minister Michael Heseltine resigns.
1990 The space shuttle Columbia blasts off on a critical satellite-rescue mission, the first manned US space launch of the new decade.
1991 US Secretary of State James Baker fails to persuade Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait in talks in Geneva with Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz.
1992 Serbs in Bosnia-Herzegovina proclaim their own state.
1993 Government troops in Angola capture the headquarters of UNITA.
2000 Uzbek President Islam Karimov is headed for an overwhelming re-election victory.
2005 Sudan’s government and southern rebels sign a comprehensive peace to end civil war.
2007 A cargo plane carrying Turkish construction workers crashes while landing at an airstrip north of Baghdad, killing 34 people.
2008 Kosovo’s parliament elects former rebel leader Hashim Thaci as prime minister.
2009 The Sirius Star, a Saudi supertanker containing $100 million cargo of crude, is freed by the Somalian pirates after paying the $3 million ransom.
2012 Dubai launches Dh12 billion Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park to generate 1000 megawatts of power.
2015 Maithripala Sirisena sworn in as Sri Lanka’s new president.
2016 British aviator Tracey Curtis-Taylor completes 3-month flight from England to Australia by her open-cockpit biplane.
2017 Pakistan test-fires its first submarine-launched cruise missile.
HIGHLIGHT
1993
Great escape on New Delhi runway
The passengers scrambled out of emergency exits and broken windows as flames spread after a Russian-made TU-154 aircraft leased by Indian Airlines missed the runway and flipped over in New Delhi. Six people were hospitalised following the crash while dozens of others were treated on the scene for shock. The plane was carrying 152 passengers and 13 crew on a flight from the southern city of Hyderabad to New Delhi. Baggage and twisted metal were strewn across the runway and the aircraft was charred hulk after burning for two hours. The plane broke into at least three pieces and caught fire after the Russian pilot missed the runway while landing before dawn in darkness and heavy fog. “It is a great miracle there have been no deaths in such a major disaster,” said Harbans Kumar, director of the Indira Gandhi airport, which was shut after the accident. The word “Uzebekistan” was still visible on the blackened sides of the aircraft.
