October 4
1830 Belgium proclaims its independence from the Netherlands.
1853 Turkey declares war on Russia.
1895 The first US Open golf tournament is held, at the Newport Country Club on Rhode Island.
1910 Portugal’s King Manuel II flees to England on outbreak of revolution in Lisbon.
1930 Former presidential candidate Getulio Vargas leads a revolt in Brazil and later becomes president.
1957 Soviet Union puts the first spacecraft, Sputnik, into orbit around earth, heralding the start of the space age.
1958 British Overseas Airways begins first trans-Atlantic passenger jetliner service with flights between London and New York.
1965 Pope Paul arrives at Kennedy International Airport in New York City on the first visit by a reigning pope to the US.
1966 The British colony of Basutoland becomes independent as the Kingdom of Lesotho.
1971 The US calls on Egypt and Israel to work out an interim agreement on the reopening the Suez Canal.
1980 Jordan becomes the first Arab state to openly support Iraq in its war with Iran.
1985 Kidnapped US diplomat William Buckley is executed in Beirut.
1988 Brazil enacts new constitution, completing long-awaited ‘transition to democracy’.
1990 German lawmakers meet in the Reichstag for the first meeting of reunified Germany’s parliament.
1992 The Mozambique government and rebels sign a peace treaty to end 15 years of civil war.
1993 Two US Blackhawk helicopters headed to capture a local warlord are shot down in the Somali capital of Mogadishu.
1997 Spain’s Princess Cristina marries Olympic handball star Inaki Urdangarin in a glittering ceremony.
1999 Palestinian and Israeli negotiators agreed on terms for the first-ever safe passage route between the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
2001 A Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile brings down a Russian airliner over the Black
Sea, killing all 78 people on board
2002 John Walker Lindh, a US citizen captured by US forces while he was fighting with Afghanistan’s Taliban militia, is sentenced to 20 years in prison.
2003 For the first time all Omani citizens above 21 years are given the right to vote for the 83-seat advisory council.
2008 Poland turns over control of an area south of Baghdad to American troops.
2010 Heavy rain unleashed flash floods and mudslides in Wasior, Indonesia, killing 29 people.
2012 Former Philippines president Gloria Arroyo is arrested at a hospital after being charged a case of alleged corruption.
2014 Former Haitian president Jean Claude Duvalier dies of heart attack.
HIGHLIGHT
1995
French troops end Comoros coup
Veteran mercenary Bob Denard freed the Comoran president, ending a six-day coup, after French troops landed in the Indian Ocean islands. “I have no regrets,” the 66-year-old French soldier of fortune said, adding he expected to surrender from the barracks he was using as a refuge, surrounded by French forces sent to oust him. He said he had handed over President Said Mohamed Djohar unharmed to the French Embassy after 600 French troops landed before dawn on the former French colony northwest of Madagascar. “We’re caught in a trap, we have to accept the consequences,” Denard said. The strike force France has mobilised didn’t allow us to make any resistance, he said, ruling out a lastditch fight. French General Raymond Germanos said: “We are waiting for him to take his decision and we hope that will be done quickly. Comoran Prime Minister Caabi Elyachroutu had granted a request for amnesty for the Comoran rebels who fought alongside Denard and his 33-man mercenary force on the islands.
