1992 - Sri Lankan navy commander, Vice-Admiral Clancy Fernando, and three other naval personnel were killed by a suicide bomber who rammed the commander’s vehicle with an explosive-laden motorcycle in the heart of Colombo. The military blamed the guerrillas of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LITE) for the blast, which took place on the central road of Galle Face Green, barely a kilometre from the naval headquarters, the presidential secretariat and the president’s official residence. It said that the suicide bomber had waited on the side of the road and as the naval chief’s black Mercedes Benz was approaching, he rammed the vehicle from the side killing Fernando and two others.
Other important events
1632 - King Gustavus II of Sweden is killed in the Battle of Luetzen.
1824 - Australian explorer Hamilton Hume discovers the Murray River, the longest in Australia.
1848 - A liberal insurrection breaks out in Rome, eventually forcing the pope to flee.
1918 - Hungary declares independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and is proclaimed a republic.
1920 - The Russian Civil War ends with victory for the Bolsheviks.
1941 - Nazi Germany launches second failed assault on Moscow in the Second World War.
1959 - The Rogers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music opens on Broadway in New York.
1973 - Skylab 3, carrying a crew of three astronauts, is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on an 84-day mission.
1980 - Thailand ammunition plant explosions kill 38.
1990 - Hungary announces it will scrap its Soviet-made ground-to-ground missiles.
1992 - Adding to sanctions, the United Nations orders a naval blockade of Yugoslavia.
1993 - A month-long siege of a mosque in Kashmir by Indian troops is ended peacefully.
1994 - Ukrainian parliament approves Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
1995 - More than 10 million Algerians vote under massive security in their first contested presidential election.
1996 - A building housing Russian military personnel and their families near Chechnya collapses after an explosion, killing 13 people.
1997 - The Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Hospital at Jurf in Ajman is officially opened.
2001 - German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder wins confidence vote.
2002 - Pervez Musharraf becomes President of Pakistan.
2004 - Australia’s fastest train crashes near Bundaberg in southeast Queensland, no casualties reported.
2007 - North and South Korea agree to launch cross-border rail service for the first time in more than half a century.
2013 - Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar retires after his 200th and last Test match at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
