81 killed in India train plunge
1997 - Five carriages of Howrah-Ahmedabad Express plunged from a bridge into a river in central India and at least 81 people were killed and some 175 injured. The express train carriages fell into the river near Champa town in the east of Madhya Pradesh state. The four compartments carrying about 300 passengers and a cargo carriage plunged into the Hansdev River. The five carriages were behind the engine and one of them was totally smashed. The carriages of the Kolkata-bound train plunged off a bridge into a dry, rocky river bed. The train engine and one carriage were left dangling from the bridge. One of the fallen cars was completely crushed when another car fell on it. The police said sabotage was not suspected and that the driver was to blame.
September 14
1814 - Francis Scott Key writes America’s national anthem, “The Star Spangled Banner.”
1891 - The first penalty kick in the English Football League is taken by Wolverhampton Wanderers in their match against Accrington.
1901 - US President William McKinley dies of gunshot wounds inflicted by an assassin.
1905 - Great Britain’s Royal Automobile Club holds its first race on the Isle of Man.
1917 - Russia is officially proclaimed a republic.
1918 - Austria-Hungary makes peace offer to Allies in the First World War.
1923 - Miguel Primo de Rivera assumes power in Spain.
1948 - A ground-breaking ceremony takes place in New York at the site of the United Nations world headquarters.
1959 - Soviet space probe Luna 2 becomes the first man-made object to reach the moon.
1960 - Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) is founded.
1996 - Bosnia holds its first post-war election.
1997 - German and US military planes collide off the coast of Namibia killing 33 people.
2000 - Cheng Kejie, a former deputy chairman of China’s parliament, is executed for corruption.
2002 - American Tim Montgomery breaks the 100-metre world record in a time of 9.78 seconds.
2003 - In a referendum, Estonia approves joining the European Union
2008 - A passenger jet travelling from Moscow to Perm crashes, killing all 88 people on board.
2009 - The rear of a Fokker 100 passenger plane catches fire as it makes an emergency landing at Germany’s Stuttgart airport.
2010 - Australia’s first woman Prime Minister Julia Gillard takes over office with shaky coalition.
2012 - A passenger bus collides with a fuel tanker on the highway from Kabul to Kandahar, Afghanistan, killing 51 people.
2013 - Japan successfully launches a new rocket, its first space telescope.
2015 - Taliban insurgents in military uniform storm an Afghan prison in Gazni, freeing hundreds of inmates.
