French actress Simone Signoret dies
1985 - Simone Signoret, one of France’s best-known actresses, died after suffering from cancer. She was 64. Her daughter, Catherine Allegret, said Signoret died at 7.30am (local time) in her country house in the Eure, west of Paris. “She fought until the end. She died as she lived, with courage,” the daughter said. Signoret, an Oscar winner and star of some 40 films, published her first novel, Adieu, Volddia. It immediately became a best-seller in France. She had previously written three non-fictions, including her autobiography, Nostalgia Isn’t What It Used To Be, published in 1977. She won an Oscar for the 1961 film Room At The Top. Signoret had been married since 1951 to actor Yves Montand. Signoret made no secret of her left-wing political leaning.
Other important events on September 30
1787 - Sailing ship Columbia leaves Boston on first voyage around world by an American vessel.
1846 - Dentist William Morton uses ether as an anaesthetic on a patient for the first time.
1938 - Britain, France, Germany and Italy agree to transfer Czech Sudetenland to Germany.
1965 - Six of Indonesia’s top army generals are kidnapped and killed in an abortive coup.
1966 - Republic of Botswana gains independence from Britain.
1975 - Boxer Muhammad Ali beats Joe Frazier to retain his world heavyweight title.
1990 - Soviet Union and South Korea open full diplomatic relations.
1993 - An earthquake rocks western India, leaving more than 10,000 dead.
1994 - The World Health Organisation announces that polio has been completely eradicated from the western hemisphere.
1996 - Seawolf 103, the cargo ship carrying 1,253 amnesty-seekers to Mumbai, leaves Port Hamriya in Dubai.
1999 - The first Arabian Wildlife Centre in the region opens in Sharjah.
2008 - 168 people are killed and scores injured in a massive stampede at a Hindu temple in Jodphur, India.
2009 - Massive earthquake strikes the Island of Sumatra in Indonesia, killing thousands.
2010 - An Indian court delivers its verdict on the six-decade-old Ayodhya dispute, ordering the site to be divided equally between Hindu and Muslim litigants.
2011 - Anwar Al Awlaqi, a key Al Qaida leader, is killed by a US air strike in Al Jawf, Yemen.
2014 - Microsoft unveils a new operating system — Windows 10.
