King Baudouin of Belgium, Europe’s longest-reigning monarch, died of a heart attack while on holiday in Spain. “The nation is in mourning,” said Belgian radio in opening remarks broadcasting news of the death of the 62-year-old monarch. Baudouin, known as “le roi triste” (The Sad King) by his subjects, occupied the throne for 42 years. His reign began in July 1951 after his father Leopold III abdicated. Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene flew to Granada, in southern Spain, to accompany Baudouin’s widow, Queen Fabiola, on the Belgian air force flight bringing the king’s body back to Brussels.Successor Belgium’s Prince Philippe, a shy and reserved man, is widely expected to take over the throne of his uncle Baudouin. King Baudouin and his wife Queen Fabiola had no children.
Other important events
1658 Aurangzeb is proclaimed Mogul Emperor in India.
1789 Austrian and Russian troops defeat Turks at Focshani in Romania.
1812 Venezuelan Republic falls to Spanish forces and Francisco de Miranda is arrested.
1922 Ralph Samuelson rides the world’s first water skis at Lake City, Minnesota.
1938 Bulgaria sign a non-aggression treaty with Greece, Turkey, Romania and Yugoslavia.
1969 US Spacecraft Mariner 6, coming to within 2,000 miles of Mars, transmits the first pictures of the red planet.
1974 Ceasefire takes effect between Turkey and Greece in fighting on Cyprus.
1991 US and Soviet Union sign landmark Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
1992 A Thai Airlines Airbus crashes into a mountain in Kathmandu, killing 213 people.
2003 Austrian parachutist Felix Baumgartner becomes the first person ever to fly across the English Channel without an aircraft.
2010 Seventeen are killed and 68 more are injured after a coal mine blast in northern China.
2011 A full scale military attack against Hama City in Syria left 150 killed and more that 1,000 injured.
2014 At least 23 people drown in rough seas off Pakistan’s Karachi beach.
2015 Mexican photojournalist Ruben Espinosa is brutally killed in multiple homicide.
2017 UAE President issues new Tax Procedures Law.
