Second bomb blast stuns Israel
1996 - A suicide bomber blew up 18 people on a bus in occupied Jerusalem and wounded 10 in a mirror-image of an attack a week ago. Israel’s Prime Minister Shimon Peres declared an all-out war on Hamas, but his tough talk did little to impress stunned residents of Jerusalem who said the election would turn on the issue of personal security. Hamas said one of its “martyrs” blew himself up, on the same bus line, on the same street and at almost the same time which killed 25 people. Peres vowed to wipe out Hamas. He dropped, temporarily at least, his vision of an integrated Middle East, promising to separate Jews and Arabs and to punish the families of bombers. Palestinian President Yasser Arafat condemned the morning rush-hour attack.
March 3
1849 - US Congress creates the Minnesota Territory
1878 - Bulgaria gains independence after five centuries of Ottoman Turkish rule.
1896 - Peace of Bucharest between Serbia and Bulgaria is signed.
1953 - World heavyweight boxing champion James Jeffries dies at 78.
1956 - Morocco gains independence from France.
1974 - A Turkish Airlines plane crashes after take-off from Orly Airport in Paris, killing 350.
1980 - Robert Mugabe wins a landslide victory in Rhodesia’s independence election.
1987 - Socialist Prime Minister Bettino Craxi resigns after 3 1/2 years in power in Italy.
1988 - Political clashes leave 11 people dead and more than 300 injured in Bangladesh.
1992 - Bosnia becomes a nation.
1995 - The former president of Mexico, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, goes on a hunger strike.
1997 - Sky Tower, the tallest free-standing structure in the southern hemisphere, opens in Auckland, New Zealand.
1997 - A runaway express train ploughs into an emergency stop barrier in southern Pakistan, killing 126 passengers.
2002 - Swiss citizens vote in favour of becoming the 190th member of the United Nations.
2005 - An Interior Ministry helicopter with five people crashes into the sea near Jumeirah Palm Island in Dubai.
2009 - Dozens of gunmen armed with rifles and rocket launchers attack the bus of the Sri Lankan cricket team in Pakistan.
2011 - Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmad Shafiq steps down.
2014 - An Emirati police officer among three security personnel from a joint Gulf force are killed in a blast in Manama, Bahrain.
