1998 - At least 100 people were dead and 70 missing after torrential rain drove rivers of mud and rocks through several towns in southern Italy, sweeping away cars and flattening houses. About 1,800 people were left homeless after the mud spewed into low-lying villages in the Campania region around Naples. One village square, in Sarno, was turned into a muddy plain littered with half-buried debris and a house on the edge of the square was completely flattened. The hardest hit towns were Sarno, Quindici and Siano, all south of Naples in the Salerno and Avellino provinces. The civil protection agency said 13 people had been killed in Sarno, 60 were missing and about 650 had been left homeless. Temporary shelters were set up in schools, markets and army barracks in nearby towns. Television pictures showed people huddling together on a rooftop waiting to be saved.
May 6
1889 - The Paris Exposition, with the newly built Eiffel Tower, opens.
1902 - British SS Camorta sinks off Rangoon, 732 people die.
1937 - German dirigible Hindenburg explodes on landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 36.
1941 - Josef Stalin becomes Premier of the Soviet Union.
1942 - US-Filipino forces on island of Corregidor in Manila Bay surrender to Japanese in the Second World War.
1953 - The first successful open-heart surgery on a human, using a heart-lung machine, is performed by John Gibbon in US.
1980 - Dubai issues a decree creating a free zone in Jebel Ali Port area.
1992 - Lebanese government headed by Omar Karami resigns after anti-government riots.
2001 - Pope John Paul makes history by becoming the first pontiff ever to enter a mosque in Syria.
2007 - Nicolas Sarkozy elected French President.
2008 - The UAE capital’s bourse is renamed the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange.
2009 - South Africa’s parliament chooses Jacob Zuma as President.
2010 - Nigeria’s acting leader Goodluck Jonathan is sworn in as President.
2012 - Socialist Francois Hollande is elected French president.
2014 - UAE launches a joint venture project in Greece at a total cost of €7 billion.
2015 - The UAE and the European Union sign a landmark agreement allowing Emirati citizens to visit all Schengen countries without a visa.
