1987 - Geoffrey Prime, a former translator at Britain’s electronic intelligence-gathering centre, was sentenced to 35 years’ imprisonment for spying for the Soviet Union for more than 14 years. He was handed down another three-year sentence for sexually molesting three young girls. “By your treachery you have done incalculable harm to the interests and security of this country ...,” judge Lord Lane said in passing the sentence. British authorities had no suspicion that Prime was a spy until he was picked up on the assault charges in Cheltenham, where he had worked for the top-secret government communications headquarters. His second wife Rhona, 37, said she had gone to the police with Prime’s espionage equipment after discovering it under a bed in their home.
Other important events
1766 - The Rutgers University is established in New Jersey.
1775 - The Continental Congress approves resolution to establish two battalions of US Marines.
1885 - The son of German engineer Otto Daimler becomes the first motorcyclist, riding his father’s invention for 10 kilometres.
1928 - Hirohito is enthroned as Emperor of Japan.
1962 - Kuwait adopts a constitution.
1970 - The Soviet Union launches Luna 17, which lands a roving vehicle on the Moon.
1975 - Angola becomes independent of Portugal.
1976 - Syrian troops and tanks enter Beirut without resistance under agreement for multinational Arab peacekeeping force.
1982 - Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev dies at the age of 75.
1984 - The first Breeders’ Cup thoroughbred horse race takes place at Hollywood Park Racetrack, California.
1987 - Niger’s President Seyni Kountche dies in Paris and is replaced as head of state by army chief Ali Seibou.
1988 - Iran and Britain restore full diplomatic ties.
1989 - Todor Zhivkov resigns after 35 years as Communist Party leader of Bulgaria.
1990 - Chandrashekhar is sworn in as India’s eighth Prime Minister.
1994 - Chandrika Kumaratunga wins presidential election in Sri Lanka.
1995 - A Nigerian playwright and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa is hanged in Nigeria despite worldwide objections.
1999 - Dubai Press Club is inaugurated.
2001 - Australian Prime Minister John Howard sweeps back to power for a historic third term.
2002 - A series of pulverising tornadoes hits Alabama, Tennessee and Ohio, killing more than 35 people.
2011 - At least 20 workers are killed and another 23 are trapped underground after a blast at a mine in China.
2013 - Typhoon Haiyan hits central Philippines and kills more than 10,000 people.
2016 - The Yasser Arafat Museum opens to public in Ramallah, West Bank.
