1986 - Sweden came to a standstill as millions of people observed a minute’s silence in honour of slain Prime Minister Olof Palme, shot dead by an unknown gunman on February 28. Thousands of factories halted production, trains stopped running, flights were delayed and motorists got out of their cars to stand in silence as part of a nationwide tribute to Palme called for by speaker of parliament Ingemund Bengtsson. The minute’s silence was also observed during a solemn memorial service in parliament, at which Bengtsson described Palme as a great international statesman and Sweden’s most brilliant politician of modern times. Leaders of all main political parties paid tribute to Palme at the civil memorial service in parliament.
Other important events
March 10
1862 - US issues its first paper money.
1876 - The first successful voice transmission over Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone takes place in Boston.
1902 - Earthquake destroys Turkish city of Tochangri.
1933 - A 6.4 earthquake strikes Long Beach, California, killing 120.
1946 - Italian women vote for the first time.
1959 - Dalai Lama flees to India after a failed rebellion against Chinese rule.
1982 - United States imposes economic sanctions against Libya.
1985 - Soviet Union President Konstantin Chernenko dies and is succeeded by Mikhail Gorbachev.
1990 - Lithuania proclaims its independence from the USSR.
1991 - Half a million people rally in Moscow in support of Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
1997 - The Vatican establishes diplomatic relations with Libya.
1998 - Chile’s former dictator Gen Augusto Pinochet retires as commander-in-chief of the army.
2001 - Oman announces the discovery of a new major gas field in the Al Dakhlia region.
2005 - A suicide bomber blows himself up in a Shiite mosque in the northern city of Mosul, Iraq, killing at least 36 people.
2006 - A vehicle carrying a wedding party hits an anti-tank mine in southwest Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province, killing 28 people.
2010 - Mohammad Syed Tantawi, the Grand Imam of Cairo’s Al Azhar Mosque, dies of a heart attack at Riyadh Airport.
2013 - The UAE Cabinet agrees to form a new international training and research centre to fight terrorism.
2015 - Pakistan lifts death penalty moratorium in all capital cases.
