July 29, 1990: London night club siege ends

London night club siege ends

1990 - A 10-hour siege at a central London nightclub ended peacefully when police arrested a gunman holding hostages and reportedly demanding an aircraft to take him to Beirut. The gunman, wrapped in a red blanket, which covered his head, emerged first from Tokyo Joe’s, a popular club in Clarges Street off Piccadilly, and was bundled into a police vehicle. Police had no immediate details on how the siege ended. At one stage, he had ordered the police to supply a coach to take him and 60 hostages to Heathrow with a guaranteed flight for all of them to Beirut. Police carried out lengthy negotiations with the man, reported to be armed with a shotgun, a pistol, a sword-like knife and a bomb-like device strapped around his waist.

July 29

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1937 - Eighteen-year-old Crown Prince Farouk is crowned king of Egypt.

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1958 - The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) is founded in US.

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1980 - Iran’s Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi is laid to rest in Cairo.

1981 - Prince Charles marries Lady Diana Spencer in London.

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