1993 A series of high-powered explosions at 14 different locations killed at least 250 people and injured over 1,000, turning the metropolis into a cauldron of chaos and panic. The explosions were triggered off at 12.30pm in a suburban train at Nerul, about 80km north of Mumbai. The 27-storey building of the Mumbai Stock Exchange shuddered to a massive explosion at 1.28pm as the trading was about to end. A third explosion occurred at Carnac Bunder between VT terminus and Masjid railway station.
Another explosion ripped through the streets of Zhaveri Bazaar, the main bullion market. The headquarters of the national airline Air India office at Nariman Point. The residents of the Worli complex and the heavy crowd near the Passport Office, were thrown against the walls when an explosion turned several buses and cars into fire balls.More bombs exploded at Plaza Cinema in Dadar and Mahim. Telephone lines and power supply broke down cutting out all communication.
Other important events
1841 - English inventor Orlando Jones patents a process for producing starch from rice.
1854 - Britain and France conclude alliance with Turks against Russia.
1868 - Britain annexes Basutoland, South Africa.
1918 - Moscow becomes the capital of Russia again after St Petersburg held this status for 215 years.
1930 - Mohandas Gandhi begins a 320-kilometre march to protest a British tax on salt.
1939 - Pope Pius XII is formally crowned in ceremonies at the Vatican.
1940 - Finland and the Soviet Union conclude an armistice during the Second World War.
1946 - The US Civil Aeronautics Administration issues the first commercial helicopter licence to the Bell Aircraft Corporation for its Model 47.
1947 - The Truman Doctrine is proclaimed to help stem the spread of Communism.
1967 - General Suharto is sworn in as acting president of Indonesia.
1968 - Indian Ocean island of Mauritius proclaims its independence from Great Britain.
1972 - Britain and China agree to exchange ambassadors, 22 years after London first recognised the Peking government.
1980 - A Chicago jury finds John Wayne Gacy Jr. guilty of murdering 33 men and boys. He is executed in 1994.
1986 - The Swedish parliament elects Social Democratic Party leader Ingvar Carlsson as Prime Minister.
1988 - At least 100 soccer fans are crushed to death as a crowd rushes towards locked exits in a storm at Kathmandu National Stadium, Nepal.
1993 - Janet Reno sworn in as the US’s first woman Attorney General.
1994 - The Church of England ordains its first women priests.
1999 - Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland join Nato.
2003 - Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic is assassinated in Belgrade.
2004 - South Korea President Roh Moo-hyun is impeached by National Assembly.
2006 - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez raises new flag with symbols for indigenous people and labourers.
2007 - British journalist Alan Johnston is kidnapped in the Gaza Strip by unknown assailants.
2013 - Emirates airline launches a $1 billion sukuk.
2014 - A massive explosion flattens two apartment buildings in New York City, killing at least six people.
2015 - At least 25 people die in Russian shopping centre fire in the city of Kazan.
2017 - Lebanon’s most famous cartoonist Stavro Jabra dies at the age of 70.
