1992 - Israel assassinated the leader of pro-Iranian Hezbollah in a helicopter raid, which also killed his wife, six-year-old son and seven bodyguards. A Hezbollah spokesman said Shaikh Abbas Musawi and his family were burnt alive when their Mercedes limousine was hit by a rocket in an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon. The Israelis ambushed Musawi’s motorcade in their second air attack on south Lebanon to avenge an Arab raid on an army camp in which three recruits were hacked and stabbed to death with axes, knives and a pitchfork. Israel also took its revenge by sending warplanes and helicopters on a night sortie into south Lebanon. They fired seven rockets into Ain El Hilweh refugee camp east of Sidon. Rockets hit and damaged a house in the area.
Other important events
1918 - England’s port of Dover is bombarded by German submarines in First World War.
1923 - The burial chamber of King Tutankhamen’s tomb is unsealed in Egypt.
1956 - Britain abolishes death penalty.
1959 - Fidel Castro becomes premier of Cuba after the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista.
1966 - Australian cricketer Bob Cowper makes 307 against England at Melbourne.
1981 - A powerful explosion rips through a stairway behind the VIP grandstand at the Karachi National Stadium minutes before Pope John Paul II celebrates mass.
1983 - “Ash Wednesday” bushfires in Victoria and South Australia claim more than 70 lives.
1986 - Arab Air ‘86, the first air show, takes off in Dubai.
1988 - Sri Lankan film star-turned- politician Vijaya Kumaranatunge is shot dead in Colombo.
1989 - Iraq, Egypt, Jordan and North Yemen form common market.
1991 - Former Contra military chief Enrique Bermudez is assassinated outside downtown Managua hotel.
1993 - A triple-decker ferry carrying 1,500-2,000 people capsizes and sinks off the Haiti coast, killing more than 1,200.
1998 - A China Airlines plane crashes near Taipei’s airport killing all 203 on board.
2002 - Dubai Government launches the Dubai International Financial Centre.
2003 - The Kalba-Wadi Al Helou tunnel, the longest mountain pass in the Middle East, is inaugurated.
2005 - Implementation of the Kyoto Protocol aiming to slow global warming.
2009 - Samsung launches the world’s first solar-powered mobile phone.
2012 - At least 14 Palestinian children are burnt alive when their school bus collides with a truck loaded with petrol at the Jaba’a junction between Jerusalem and the West Bank.
2013 - A remote-controlled bomb kills at least 63 people in Hazara town, Quetta, Pakistan.
2016 - Former UN secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Gali dies at the age of 93.
