1998 - Twelve people were killed and 47 injured when an express train jumped the rails in eastern India due to sabotage. Nine carriages of the train were derailed some 20km from the city of Patna in Bihar state. The dead included a child. Fifteen of the injured were critically ill in hospital. So far, five bodies have been identified. The derailment saw nine bogies of the Howrah-Danapur Express, including three air-conditioned and two Sleeper Class coaches, getting unhitched from the engine and knocked off the track and overturned as seven other compartments dragged on for 200 metres before coming to a halt. Eastern Railway spokesman S.K. Mishra said a fish plate was found removed while another was reported missing over a rail bridge.
Other important events
1770 - British navigator Captain James Cook, aboard Endeavour, lands in Australia, naming the natural harbour Botany Bay, now in the suburbs of Sydney.
1876 - Britain’s Queen Victoria is declared Empress of India.
1903 - A strong earthquake kills 2,200 in Turkey.
1914 - 181 die in coal mine collapse at Eccles, West Virginia.
1936 - King Fouad of Egypt dies and is replaced on the throne by his son Farooq.
1945 - Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, are executed.
1952 - War with Japan ends as a treaty is signed by the US and 47 other countries takes effect.
1967 - Heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali refuses to be inducted into the Army.
1969 - Charles de Gaulle resigns as President of France.
1982 - Gulf Cement Company is inaugurated in Ras Al Khaimah.
1984 - A new runway at Dubai International Airport is opened.
1988 - The roof of an Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 peels off during a flight from Hilo to Honolulu, killing a flight attendant and injuring 61 people.
1992 - Italian President Francesco Cossiga formally resigns.
1993 - Zambian plane crashes at Libreville, Gabon, killing 30 football players.
1995 - A gas blast kills at least 100 people in South Korea.
1996 - A gunman slaughters 35 tourists near the ruins of a colonial prison in Tasmania, Australia.
2001 - A Russian rocket lifts off from Central Asia bearing the first space tourist, American businessman Dennis Tito.
2003 - Apple launches the iTunes Music Store.
2005 - First democratically elected government is formed in Iraq.
2012 - A massive fire guts more than 100 flats in a 40-storey Al Tayer Tower, leaving hundreds of people homeless in Al Nahda area of Sharjah.
2013 - Italian centre-left politician Enrico Letta is sworn in as Prime Minister.
2015 - Indonesia executes seven foreign drug convicts, including two Australians, by firing squad.
2016 - India successfully launches into orbit its 7th navigation satellite - IRNSS-1G.
