1998 Two people were injured in two bomb blasts in Karachi, shattering two days of relative calm in the violence-wracked port city. The two bomb blasts — one in a newspaper office and another a car bomb near a shopping cum office block — posed new security risks in the country’s commercial capital. Witnesses said two motorcycle riders were seriously injured in the first blast which set the car ablaze.
The device near the Shaheen complex was planted in a parked outside Orient Travellers. Bomb disposal chief Moinuddin said the bomb was locally made and had a 15-minute timer set on it. However, there was not much material damage apart from the car which was completely wrecked. The bombs took on added significance when it was learnt that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was scheduled to arrive in the port city to launch the country’s indigenous minesweeper for the Pakistan Navy.
Other important events
1816 Argentina declares independence from Spain.
1877 The inaugural Wimbledon Championships open.
1850 Zachary Taylor, the 12th president of the United States, dies in Washington after serving only 16 months in office.
1915 German forces in southwest Africa surrender to South Africans under Louis Botha.
1918 Two passenger trains collide head-on, 101 people are killed in Nashville, US.
1925 Revolution breaks out in Ecuador.
1944 Allied forces take Caen, France from the Germans.
1982 Pan Am Flight 759 crashes in Kenner, Louisiana, killing all 145 people on board and eight others on the ground.
1984 Beirut airport reopens after a five-month shutdown.
1986 Leftist Red Army faction assassins kill leading industrialist, Karl Heinz Beekurts with a remote-controlled bomb in Munich.
1991 The International Olympic Committee readmits South Africa after three decades.
2002 African Union is formed with President Thabo Mbeki as chairman
2005 John Garang, a former rebel leader, is sworn in as Sudan’s first vice-president as a new constitution comes into force.
2006 A Russian commercial plane careens into garages, killing at least 125 people.
2008 Abu Dhabi Investment Council acquires New York’s Chrysler Building.
2012 Aung San Suu Kyi attends her first session of parliament at Myanmar’s Lower House.
2013 A massive car bomb rips through Bir Al Abed neighbourhood in Beirut, wounding 53 people.
