July 25, 1995: Four killed in Paris Metro station blast

Four killed in Paris Metro blast

1995 - Four people were killed and at least 40 wounded when a bomb ripped through a rush-hour under-ground train in a central Paris Metro station. French Prime Minister Alain Juppe visited the scene and said: “There are very strong suspicions that it was a terrorist attack.” If confirmed, it would be the first such attack in France since President Jacques Chirac took office in May, embarking on a robust foreign and nuclear policy that have made him numerous enemies. The bomb exploded in a carriage of the southbound RER suburban rapid transit system at the Saint-Michel station beside Notre Dame cathedral. Four of the wounded had limbs amputated by emergency medical services at a makeshift field hospital set up in a cafe outside the Metro station.

July 25

1894 - The Japanese navy defeats a Chinese fleet in Kanghwa Bay, sparking a Sino-Japanese war.

1909 - French aviator Louis Bleriot becomes the first person to fly across the English Channel.

1920 - French forces occupy Damascus, Syria.

1943 - Benito Mussolini is forced to resign as Prime Minister of Italy during the Second World War.

1952 - Puerto Rico becomes a self-governing commonwealth of the United States.

1957 - Tunisia becomes independent from France.

1963 - United States, Soviet Union and Britain conclude treaty prohibiting nuclear testing in atmosphere, space or under water.

1968 - Pope Paul VI bans all artificial birth control methods for Roman Catholics.

1978 - The world’s first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, is born in Britain.

1979 - Fire guts the entire southern end of the Dnata building, one of Dubai’s showpiece projects.

1984 - Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to walk in space.

1994 - Jordan and Israel seal the end of a 46-year state of war.

1998 - Saudi Arabia and Yemen reach an agreement on the principles of a solution to a border conflict.

1999 - Northern Ireland’s Eddie Irvine wins Austrian Grand Prix in Spielberg.

2000 - An Air France Concorde travelling to New York crashes into a hotel outside Paris shortly after take-off, killing 113 people.

2002 - Floods ravage South Asia, leaving more than seven million homeless and 288 dead in Bangladesh, Nepal and India.

2007 - Pratibha Patil makes history as she is sworn in as India’s first woman President.