Former Turkish president Celal Bayar dies in Istanbul, aged 104, a quarter of a century after being reprieved from hanging because of his advanced years. One of the world’s oldest statesmen, Bayar entered hospital because of a heart complaint and died the following day. Bayar, who was president from 1950 to 1960, fought alongside Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in the 1919-1922 “War of Independence” that led to the foundation of the modern Turkish republic and he was the prime minister when his old friend died in 1938. The elder statesman of the Turkish right-wing, he was sentenced to death in 1961 in a political trial that followed the 1960 military coup which toppled him from power, but was reprieved because he was then nearly 80 years old.
Other important events
1485 England’s King Richard III is killed at the Battle of Bosworth, ending War of the Roses.
1788 British find settlement in Sierra Leone, Africa, as asylum for freed slaves.
1846 United States annexes New Mexico.
1864 12 nations sign the First Geneva Convention.
1922 Michael Collins, the Irish Sinn Fein leader, is gunned down near Cork by militant nationalists.
1955 A US Navy patrol plane with 16 men aboard is shot down off mainland China by Chinese Communist aircraft.
1968 Pope Paul VI arrives in Bogota, Colombia, for the start of his first papal visit to Latin America.
1978 Kenyan President Jomo Kenyatta dies.
1981 A Taiwanese domestic jetliner explodes in mid air and bursts into flames, killing all 110 people on board.
1985 A British Airtours Boeing 737 bursts into flames at Manchester Airport, killing 54 tourists.
1992 Hurricane Andrew strikes the Florida coast, with damage estimated at $7.3 billion, making it the most costly in US history.
1993 Former Algerian prime minister Kasdi Merbah is assassinated
1994 Ernesto Zedillo, rolling up a commanding presidential victory in Mexico, vows to stick to the free-market course set by his predecessor.
1999 A Taiwanese airliner crashes at Hong Kong airport. Only two of the 315 passengers and crew die.
2004 Armed robbers steal The Scream and another masterpiece by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch in a bold daytime raid on an Oslo museum packed with terrified tourists.
2005 Last Israeli settlers leave Gaza Strip ending 38 years of occupation.
2006 British twin-engine diesel-powered JCB Diesel Max enters into the record books, racing across the salt flats at 526.027km/h at Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.
2008 Columns of Russian tanks roll out of key positions deep inside Georgia as a promised pullback begins.
2009 Unification Minister of South Korea Hyun In-taek hold talks with North Korea’s Spy Chief Kim Yang Gon on inter-Korea matters in Seoul South Korea, first time in after two years.
2010 Thirty-three miners are trapped in a shelter 688 metres underground after a mine collapses in San Jose, Chile.
2013 Robert Mugabe is sworn in as Zimbabwe’s president for another five-year term.
