1988 - Pakistan President General Mohammad Zia-ul Haq was killed along with some of his key army officers and the American Ambassador in Islamabad when the C-130 aircraft in which they were flying exploded minutes after take-off from the Bahawalpur Airbase. General Zia, 64, had ruled Pakistan since 1977. The dead included five generals, five brigadiers, and at least eight other senior military officers. Most prominent were the chairman of the joint chiefs-of-staff Lt. General Mian Mohammad and Chief of the General Staff, Lt. General Mian Mohammad Afzal, American Ambassador Arnold Raphel.
Other important events
1743 - Sweden cedes southern Finland to Russia in the Peace of Abo.
1945 - Indonesia declares its independence from the Netherlands.
1976 - Tidal wave on Philippine island of Mindanao leaves estimated 8,000 people dead or missing.
1980 - Diplomatic officials close the British Embassy in Iran because of hostile demonstrations.
1985 - A car packed with dynamite explodes outside a supermarket in Beirut killing more than 50 people and wounding 100.
1991 - Italy repatriates the last of an estimated 18,000 Albanian refugees who arrived in southern Italy by boat earlier in the month.
1995 - A bomb explodes at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France.
1999 - An earthquake in northwest Turkey, kills more than 2,000.
2007 - A TAM Airlines Flight 3054 crashes in Sao Paulo, Brazil, after overrunning the runway in heavy rain, killing 199 people.
2017 - 13 killed and 100 injured in Barcelona van attack.
