2007 - The prime ministers of North and South Korea met for the first time in 15 years, hoping to extend the detente fostered by the second-ever summit of their leaders last month with new South Korean investment in the impoverished North. North Korean Prime Minister Kim Yong-il said after arriving in Seoul on a direct flight from Pyongyang that he thought the three days of talks would “go well in a warm atmosphere” based on his welcome. The two sides last held prime ministerial talks in 1992 that were suspended amid the first crisis over the North’s nuclear weapons programme. Kim ranks below the top members of the North’s ruling elite: leader Kim Jong-il and the country’s No 2 official Kim Yong-nam. He is meeting with South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who is the deputy of South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun. The North-South talks come amid progress in international efforts to rid North Korea of its nuclear programs.
Other important events
1647 - England’s King Charles I is recaptured and imprisoned by rebels.
1885 - Serbia declares war on Bulgaria over possession of Eastern Rumelia.
1889 - American journalist Nellie Bly sets out to travel around the world in 72 days.
1922 - The BBC begins radio service in the United Kingdom.
1940 - German bombers destroy most of the English city of Coventry in Second World War.
1947 - United Nations recognises Korea’s claim to independence.
1954 - The first President of Egypt, Mohammed Najeeb resigns.
1957 - Britain declares Bahrain an independent state under British protection.
1960 - Two passenger trains collide in Czechoslovakia, killing 110 people and injuring 105.
1967 - American physicist and engineer Theodore Maiman is granted a US patent for the ruby laser.
1969 - Apollo 12 blasts off for the moon.
1970 - Cyclone and giant waves devastate East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) with death toll estimated at 300,000.
1975 - Spain, Morocco and Mauritania sign accord about Spanish Sahara.
1986 - The 27th Chess Olympiad opens in Dubai.
1989 - Black nationalist movement Swapo wins a solid majority in Namibia’s first national election.
1991 - Prince Norodom Sihanouk returns to Cambodia after 13 years of exile.
1994 - Tropical Storm Gordon kills at least 829 people in Haiti.
1999 - United Nations imposes sanctions on Afghanistan and demands the arrest of Osama bin Laden.
2002 - Jiang Zemin retires as the head of China’s Communist Party.
2003 - The dwarf planet Sedna is discovered.
2005 - Hundreds of heavily armed Maoist rebels storm a jail in Jehanabad, Bihar, killing at least three people and freeing about 350 prisoners.
2007 - The prime ministers of North and South Korea meet in Seoul for the first time in 15 years.
2008 - A lunar probe from India lands successfully on the moon.
2009 - New Zealand qualifies for the Fifa World Cup finals for the second time after 28 years.
2010 - Sebastian Vettel wins Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix title at Yas Marina.
2011 - Three French aid workers are released by alleged Al Qaida group in Yemen after six months in captivity.
2012 - Israel kills Ahmad Al Jabari, military commander of the Islamist group Hamas in a missile strike in Gaza Strip.
2015 - Opposition Niger presidential candidate Hama Amadou is arrested on his return from exile.
