Tiger Woods reigned supreme in the golf world after conquering his rivals in an extraordinary final-round shootout to win the Masters and hold every one of the sport’s major professional titles. Woods outduelled David Duval and Phil Mickelson in a taut showdown of the highest order to add the Masters to the US Open, British Open and PGA Championship titles he already held for an unprecedented monopoly of golf’s most prized trophies. The 25-year-old Woods sank a 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th green to put an exclamation mark on his triumph as he posted a four-under-par 68 for a 16-under total of 272 at Augusta National Golf Club for his second Masters title. Woods pumped his fist in exultation and then pulled his cap over his face to hide his tears of joy and relief, while Mickelson finished putting out at 18. He then hugged his father and his mother who were beaming with pride at the side of the green.
Other important events:
1759 British forces take Madras (now Chennai), India.
1902 Russia and China reach agreement for evacuation of Manchuria.
1906 The Algerias act is signed, giving France and Spain chief control in Morocco.
1907 Britain and France sign a convention confirming Siam’s (Thailand) independence.
1913 Chinese Republic’s first parliament opens.
1919 Russian communist army enters the Crimea.
1946 The League of Nations meets in Geneva for the last time.
1950 India and Pakistan sign a pact in New Delhi on the treatment of minorities.
1961 British cargo vessel Dara explodes in the Arabian Gulf, killing 236.
1966 Leonid Brezhnev is elected as Secretary General of Communist Party.
1990 Hungarians vote in first free election in more than 40 years.
1992 Yasser Arafat survives a 15-hour ordeal in Sahara after his plane crash-lands in Libya.
1994 Japan’s eight-month-old government collapses as Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa announce his resignation.
1996 Shelling and gunfire rage in Monrovia, Liberia, sending at least 15,000 civilians fleeing to a US Embassy compound.
1999 Yugoslavia says its 14-month war against ethnic Albanian separatists is over and urges refugees to return home.
2000 Bolivia’s president declares a state of emergency, sending police into the streets to try to quell demonstrators.
2002 A bomb explodes in a Jalalabad marketplace in an apparent assassination attempt against Afghan Defence Minister Mohammad Qassim Fahim.
2004 Algerians votes in a presidential election seen as a landmark for democracy.
2006 Syrian military court charges former vice-president Abdul Halim Khaddam with conspiracy.
2007 UAE Cabinet approves the setting up of the National Committee for Combating Human Trafficking.
2009 Injaz, the world’s first cloned camel, is born at the Camel Reproduction Centre in Dubai.
2010 The US and Russia sign a treaty to reduce nuclear weapons to their lowest levels.
2013 The Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher dies following a stroke at the age of 87.
2014 A bomb blast on a train in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan kills at least 18 people.
