2001 - Hannelore Kohl, the wife of former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, committed suicide at the family’s home in the western city of Ludwigshafen. She was 68. Kohl’s wife had been suffering for seven years from a painful sunlight allergy that virtually kept her a prisoner indoors. “Due to the hopelessness of her health situation, she decided to end her life of her own free will,” the statement from Kohl’s office said. “She conveyed this decision in farewell letters to her husband, her sons and friends.” Hannelore Kohl had suffered for seven years from a painful sunlight allergy that forced her to spend the last 15 months of her life at the family’s home “without any daylight,” the statement said. She founded a charity for helping accident victims, the Hannelore Kohl Foundation.
Other important events
1811 - Venezuela declares independence from Spain.
1812 - Britain makes peace with Russia and Sweden.
1830 - The French invade Algeria and capture Algiers.
1841 - Thomas Cook opens the world’s first travel agency in Leicester, England.
1865 - Methodist minister William Booth founds the Christian Revival Association, later to become the Salvation Army, in London.
1892 - Andrew Beard is issued a patent for a rotary engine.
1922 - The first general elections are held in the Netherlands.
1932 - Right-wing politician Antonio de Oliveira Salazar becomes Portugal’s Prime Minister.
1935 - US President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the National Labour Relations Act.
1954 - A B-52A bomber makes its maiden flight.
1969 - Kenyan politician Tom Mboya is assassinated in Nairobi.
1975 - Arthur Ashe becomes the first black man to win a Wimbledon singles title.
1977 - Chief of Army Staff of Pakistan, General Zia-ul-Haq, seizes power from Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
1980 - Zimbabwe Prime Minister Robert Mugabe breaks diplomatic ties with South Africa.
1991 - The Bank of Credit and Commerce International is shut down after the discovery of fraud.
1994 - Palestine leader Yasser Arafat returns to the West Bank after 27 years.
1997 - Martina Hingis becomes the youngest Wimbledon singles champion for 110 years.
2002 - A powerful bomb blast in Algeria kills 35 people in Larbaa.
2005 - Roger Federer of Switzerland wins Wimbledon for his record 15th Grand Slam title.
2006 - Dubai Land Department starts registration of freehold properties for non-GCC residents.
2008 - At least 25 inmates are shot dead by Syrian security forces during a riot by political detainees at a prison in mountains outside Damascus.
2014 - Petra Kvitova wins her second Wimbledon title in 55 minutes, the shortest women’s final since 1983.
2015 - Greeks defy Europe with a resounding ‘No’ vote at 61.31 per cent in a referendum.
