About 100 holidaymakers were feared dead when a torrent of mud and rock swept over a crowded family campsite in the Pyrenees mountains of northern Spain. All victims identified until the time of going to press are Spanish, but six holidaymakers from Germany, France and Belgium were among the dead. The campers also included British and Dutch tourists. Police said the task of identifying the victims of Spain’s worst such disaster was complicated because most lacked identity documents. King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia flew to the disaster area to comfort relatives of the victims as rescue workers battled to pull bodies from a mudslide triggered by heavy rains. Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar interrupted his beach holiday to inspect the damage.
Other important events:
1549 France declares war on England.
1786 Dr Michael Gabriel Piccard and Jacques Balmat of France become the first to climb Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in western Europe
1876 American inventor Thomas A. Edison receives a patent for his mimeograph.
1900 The United States defeats Great Britain in the first Davis Cup Tennis Tournament
1940 American engineer and car manufacturer Walter Chrysler dies.
1945 US President Harry S. Truman signs the United Nations Charter.
1953 The United States and South Korea sign a mutual defence treaty.
1960 Cuba nationalises American and foreign-owned property in the nation.
1962 Jamaica becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
1963 Britain’s ‘Great Train Robbery’ see thieves steal £2.6 million (Dh12.5 million) in banknotes.
1970 Three men hijack a Czechoslovak airliner en route from Prague to Bratislava, forcing it to land in Vienna. The men, all Czechoslovaks, request political asylum.
1980 General Mohammad Yahya Khan, former president of Pakistan, dies in Rawalpindi at the military hospital after protracted illness.
1983 Guatemalan President Efrain Rios Montt is ousted in a military coup after a brief resistance by loyal troops in which five people are killed.
1991 Lebanese kidnappers free British TV producer John McCarthy after holding him hostage for five years.
1992 President Denis Sassou-Nguesso loses his seat in Republic of Congo’s first presidential election since 1963.
1994 Israel and Jordan open first road linking the two nations after 46 years.
2000 A bomb rips through a crowded underground walkway in central Moscow, killing 12 people and injuring 108 others.
2001 Mohammad Khatami is sworn in for a second term as Iran’s president.
2005 Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia retains his men’s 10,000 metres title at the world athletics Championships in Helsinki
2006 Kim Gevaert wins the 100 metres title to become Belgium’s first female European champion.
2008 Six are killed and dozens injured after a bridge collapse on a train in Czech Republic.
2010 American actress Patricia Neal dies at the age of 84.
2012 Sarat Attar becomes the first Saudi woman to compete in Olympic athletics in London.
2014 WHO declares killer Ebola epidemic global emergency.
2015 England defeats Australia in the fourth cricket Test at Trent Bridge, to regain the Ashes.