1992 - Independence war fighter Ali Kafi was appointed Algeria’s head of state, succeeding assassinated president Mohammad Boudiaf. The High Council of State said Kafi was elected unanimously. Kafi, 64, was one of the original five members of the council, or collective presidency, which took power after president Chadli Benjedid quit. Redha Malek, a former minister from the 1970s era of president Houari Boumedienne, was named as the fifth member of the presidential council. Kafi was a colonel during the war for independence from France. His later position as general secretary of the veterans’ association gave him wide influence. He was considered the second-most powerful man in Boudiaf’s council, after Defence Minister Khalid Nezzar.
Other important events
1776 - The Continental Congress declares American independence.
1850 - American inventor B.J. Lane patents the gas mask.
1900 - Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin flies his first airship in Germany.
1937 - American aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappear during an attempt to cross the Pacific.
1940 - Lake Washington Floating Bridge is opened, it links Seattle to Mercer Island.
1957 - The United States submarine Grayback is launched
1964 - United States President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act against racial discrimination.
1966 - France explodes an atomic bomb at a Pacific atoll in first of series of six tests.
1976 - North and South Vietnam are reunited officially after more than 20 years of war.
1985 - British racing driver David Purley dies in plane crash, at the age of 40.
1990 - A stampede in a pedestrian tunnel linking Makkah and Meena leaves 1,400 pilgrims dead.
1992 - US complete a worldwide withdrawal of their tactical nuclear weapons, marking the end of an era.
1994 - Colombian football player Andres Escobar is slain in Medellin for accidentally scoring an own-goal against the US in a World Cup match.
2000 - Kuwait and Saudi Arabia reach an agreement over delineating their maritime border.
2006 - World Health Organisation chooses UAE as the regional centre for blood transfusion services in the Middle East.
2008 - Colombia tricks rebels into freeing 15 hostages, including ex-presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt.
2009 - King Abdullah II of Jordan officially appoints his eldest son, Hussain, 15, as Jordan’s Crown Prince.
2010 - A fuel tanker overturns and explodes in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, killing more than 220 people.
2015 - The ferry Kim Nirvana capsizes, killing at least 59 people in the Philippines.
2016 - Michael Cimino, the Oscar-winning director dies at the age of 77.
