Zimbabwe land reform starts
2000 - Zimbabwe started a controversial land reform programme to resettle landless blacks on 200 white farms, but war veterans said they would refuse to move off occupied farms. “The accelerated land reform and resettlement implementation fast-track approach commences in all eight provinces of the country,” Vice-President Joseph Msika said. Msika said landless blacks would start being moved onto farms straight away. But war veteran leader Chenjerai ‘Hitler’ Hunzvi said 200 farms was not enough and that his supporters would not move from farms not designated for seizure, as Msika had said. President Robert Mugabe’s government had earmarked some 804 farms for compulsory acquisition, in a move that alarmed farmers and the international community.
July 15
1815 - Start of horse racing at Cheltenham with first organised flat race meeting.
1822 - Turkish invasion of Greece begins.
1888 - Mount Bandai volcano in Japan erupts, destroying villages and killing 461 people.
1909 - Mohammed Ali, Shah of Persia, is deposed in favour of 12-year-old Sultan Ahmad Shah.
1914 - Mexican President Jose Victoriano Marquez flees to Spain.
1916 - Boeing Co (Pacific Aero) is formed by William Boeing in Seattle, Washington.
1939 - American aviator Clara Adams becomes the first woman to complete a round-the-world flight.
1945 - Italy declares war on Japan.
1948 - UN Security Council orders truce in Palestine.
1958 - South Africa resumes full membership in United Nations.
1965 - US Mariner IV spacecraft sends to Earth first close-up photographs of planet Mars.
1979 - Indian Prime Minister Morarji Desai resigns.
1997 - Fashion designer Gianni Versace is shot dead.
2001 - Prime Minister Shaikh Hasina leaves her post after five years in office, longer than any other Bangladeshi leader.
2002 - A Pakistani court convicts four defendants in the kidnapping and murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl.
2004 - New Zealand freezes diplomatic ties with Israel.
2007 - Human Security Act, a landmark anti-terror law, takes effect in the Philippines.
2010 - India joins a select band of elite currencies with the Indian rupee getting its unique symbol.
2012 - The Habshan-Fujairah crude oil pipe makes its inaugural 500,000 barrels of crude exported to Pakistan.
