2003 - An armed man hijacked a city bus and forced the driver on a 170km chase across northern Germany with passengers aboard before surrendering to police. None of the 11 hostages still on the bus at the end of the seven-hour standoff was injured, police said. “The hostage-taker has surrendered,” a police spokeswoman said. She did not have any further details. Officers surrounded the bus when it stopped on the A7 motorway near Hildesheim in central Germany after being pursued by police cars and ambulances. It remained idle for the last few hours of the stand-off. The drama started in the northern town of Bremen when the man boarded the bus and threatened the driver with a gun. He took about 15 passengers hostage but released several at various points during the bizarre journey.
Other important events
1809 - Britain concludes treaty of friendship with Sikhs at Amritsar in India.
1859 - Construction of the Suez Canal begins in Egypt.
1881 - French troops occupy Algeria and Tunisia.
1898 - United States declares war on Spain.
1901 - New York becomes the first US state to require automobile licence plates.
1920 - Poland launches offensive against Soviets in the Ukraine.
1942 - A coal mine disaster in Benxi, Japanese occupied China, kills 1,549 workers.
1950 - Chuck Cooper becomes first black to play in NBA.
1957 - US Sixth Fleet sails for eastern Mediterranean as King Hussain proclaims martial law in Jordan and seals frontiers after a Palestinian coup attempt.
1974 - Portugal’s bloodless “Revolution of the Carnations” ends 48 years of rightist dictatorship.
1980 - US hostage rescue mission fails in Iran.
1982 - Egypt regains Sinai from Israel after 15 years.
1989 - Japanese Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita resigns over the country’s biggest political scandal in decades.
1990 - Violeta Barrio de Chamorro is inaugurated President of Nicaragua.
1992 - Italian President Francesco Cossiga resigns.
1993 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin wins vote of confidence in Russia’s referendum.
1994 - Tsutomu Hata is elected Prime Minister of Japan.
1996 - Pakistan cricket hero Imran Khan launches political front of Tehreek-e-Insaf.
2001 - Former Philippines president Joseph Estrada is arrested in Manila for the offence of plunder case.
2010 - Two tourists are killed as hot air balloon crashes in Al Ain.
2012 - Pakistan successfully launches an intermediate range nuclear capable ballistic missile.
2015 - A powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.8 strikes Nepal, killing more than 8,000 people.
2016 - Saudi Arabia unveils the details of the kingdom’s new economic plan dubbed “Saudi Vision 2030.”
