More than 3,000 thousand people were feared dead after an earthquake hit northern Afghanistan. “The destruction was quite amazing,” the UN Coordinator for Afghanistan Alfredo Witschi-Cestari said upon returning from Shari-Buzurg, the most seriously affected area. “We saw a couple of villages that had been completely flattened, but there are probably more. This is a mountainous region and the force of the earthquake sent houses crashing down hillsides towards the valley below,” he said. Aid workers said up to 3,000 people were killed when the earthquake, which measured 7.1 on the Richter scale, struck.
Other important events
1814 The first Treaty of Paris is signed between European countries and France.
1854 Nebraska and Kansas are established as American territories.
1904 Japanese forces occupy Dalmy (Darien) in Russia.
1911 Ray Harroun wins the first long-distance auto race in Indianapolis.
1925 British police kill 13 demonstrators in Shanghai, provoking months of demonstrations and boycott of British goods in China.
1957 Britain relaxes its restrictions on trade with China.
1961 Rafael Trujillo, Dominican Republic dictator, is assassinated by machine-gun fire while driving.
1966 The US launches Surveyor 1 to Moon.
1967 Egyptian President Jamal Abdul Nasser and Jordan’s King Hussain sign a defence treaty.
1975 The European Space Agency is formed.
1981 Bangladesh President Ziaur Rahman is shot dead in the southern port city of Chittagong.
1982 Spain becomes 16th member of Nato.
1989 Student demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in Beijing erect a 33-foot statue they call the deity of democracy.
1991 A car bomb explodes near the Civil Guard barracks in Vic, Spain, killing at least nine people and injuring 50.
1992 The UN Security Council imposes trade sanctions on Serbia and Montenegro.
1994 Israel releases hundreds of Palestinian prisoners as part of its autonomy agreement with the PLO.
2000 The world’s tallest twin towers open to the public in Kuala Lumpur.
2001 Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum is awarded the Great International Cannes Prize in Cannes.
2002 The National Liberation Front, headed by Prime Minister Ali Benflis, sweeps Algeria’s legislative elections.
2003 The last Air France Concorde commercial flight for New York leaves Paris, an emotional end to a pioneering chapter in aviation.
2006 UAE diplomat Naji Al Nuaimi is released in Iraq two weeks after being kidnapped.
2007 A ban on smoking in public places in Dubai is enforced.
2008 Zimbabwe’s main opposition group declares itself the country’s new ruling party.
2012 Former Liberian president Charles Taylor is sentenced to 50 years in prison for arming and supporting rebels in Sierra Leone.
2014 Bolivia launches the world’s highest cable railway line, carrying passengers from city to city at up to 4,000 metres above sea level.
2016 A special court in Senegal sentences former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre to life in prison for war crimes.
