1996 - French President Jacques Chirac (above, second from left) began a controversial visit to Israel with a call on the Jewish state to accept the creation of a Palestinian state and give the Golan Heights back to Syria. In a strongly-worded speech at the Technion polytechnic institute in this northern port city, Chirac also called on Israel to withdraw from the buffer zone it occupies in southern Lebanon. And, brushing aside Israeli opposition, he insisted that Europe be given a greater role in the peace process, saying it “cannot be content with being the main provider of funds and the main economic partner for the Middle East”. The French president said: “On the contrary, a recognised Palestinian state would provide Israel with a true partner.”
Other important events
1790 - The Tricolour is chosen as the official flag of France.
1861 - The first South American railroad line is inaugurated in Paraguay.
1879 - American inventor Thomas A. Edison demonstrates the first electric lamp.
1914 - Battle of Warsaw ends with German defeat.
1945 - Argentine politician Juan Peron marries actress Eva Duarte.
1950 - Chinese forces occupy Tibet.
1960 - The first British nuclear submarine, Dreadnought, is launched at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria.
1966 - More than 140 people, mostly children, are killed when a coal waste landslide engulfs a school and several houses in south Wales.
1969 - Willy Brandt is elected Chancellor of West Germany.
1975 - Mexico City subway crash kills 20 people when a stationary train hits another train.
1986 - American writer Edward Tracy is kidnapped by terrorists in Beirut.
1989 - A Honduran jet breaks apart in flight and crashes outside Tegucigalpa, killing at least 120 people.
1991 - Lebanese kidnappers free American Jesse Turner after holding him hostage for nearly five years.
1993 - Gunmen assassinate Assad Saftawi, a leading member of Palestine Liberation Organisation chairman Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement in the Gaza Strip.
1994 - At least 32 people are killed when a bridge in central Seoul collapses during the morning rush hour.
1996 - Arnoldo Aleman claims victory over Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua’s presidential election.
2000 - Thuraya-1, the first satellite of Thuraya Satellite Telecommunications Company is successfully launched into orbit.
2004 - Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono sworn in as Indonesian President.
2009 - A Khartoum-bound cargo plane crashes two minutes after take-off from Sharjah Airport. All six crew members are killed in the accident.
2014 - South African Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius is sentenced to five years for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
