1997 An empty Thai supertanker and a ship half its size collided in the Singapore Strait, causing one of the worst oil spills Southeast Asia has ever seen. Singapore authorities said the Cyprus-registered tanker Evoikos spilled 25,000 tonnes of fuel oil after colliding with the supertanker Orapin Global. The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) said helicopters would be brought in to help 34 boats tackling the slicks and that Australia, Japan and the United States had been asked for equipment to speed the clean-up. Some of the thick oil was reported washing up on the beaches of three offshore islands, but clean-up efforts had prevented them reaching the main island of Singapore. The collision left the 75,000 tonne Evoikos, which was carrying a cargo of 120,000 tonnes of marine fuel oil, with a huge gash on the port side 50 metres long and 10 metres high, stretching from the top deck to below the water line.
Other important events
1793 Queen Marie Antoinette is beheaded during the French Revolution.
1913 The Booth Theatre is opened in New York City.
1945 The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations is founded.
1949 East Germany establishes formal diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.
1951 The first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan, is assassinated in Rawalpindi.
1963 Ludwig Erhard becomes Chancellor of West Germany.
1964 Harold Wilson becomes British Prime Minister for the first time.
1978 Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla becomes the first non-Italian pope since 1522.
1979 Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit resigns.
1983 A US Marine is killed and three are wounded in a sniper and grenade attack at Beirut
International Airport.
1987 Rescuers free Jessica McClure, an 18-month-old girl trapped in an abandoned well for 58 hours in Midland, Texas.
1988 Concorde make its first-ever landing at Abu Dhabi international airport.
1991 A man crashes a pickup truck into a restaurant in Killeen, Texas, and shoots patrons, killing 23 people before taking his own life.
1992 Indigenous rights activist Rigoberta Menchu of Guatemala is named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
1993 Lieutenant General Omar Hassan Al Bashir becomes president of Sudan after military ruler for four years.
1994 Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s government wins a thin majority in Germany’s elections.
1996 Fans try to squeeze into a World Cup qualifying soccer match in Guatemala City, killing 78 people in the crush.
1998 British police arrest former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in London.
2002 US President George W. Bush signs a congressional resolution authorising war against Iraq.
2003 UN Security Council votes unanimously to adopt a resolution on postwar Iraq.
2006 Tamil rebels in Sri Lanka ram a truck packed with explosives into a convoy of military buses, killing at least 93 sailors.
2010 A China coal mine accident kills 20 miners and left another 17 missing in the central province of Henan.
2013 Typhoon Wipha hits Japan’s Pacific coast, leaving more than 19 people dead.
2014 Apple unveils iPad Air 2, the world’s slimmest tablet.
2016 Ukrainian rebel commander Arsen Pavlov, knows as Motorola is killed in a lift bombing in Donetsk.
