1993 A massive IRA bomb wrecked the offices of two banks in London’s financial district, killing one, wounding 40 others and causing £1 billion (Dh5.14 billion) worth of damage. The bomb, which followed warnings, went off near the 52-storey NatWest Tower and the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, sending a mushroom cloud over the area. The blast disrupted a high-profile meeting of 3,000 finance officials, bankers and businessmen from East and West at the nearby headquarters of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development set up to help the East.
“This was a spectacular bomb from the IRA to gain maximum publicity,” a security source said. The attack punched a huge crater, blew out windows in banks, shops and offices and left streets carpeted with broken glass. The roar of the bomb could be heard from miles away. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for bomb attacks but warnings authenticated by IRA codes were received around 30 minutes before the bomb went off.
Other important events
1898 Spain declares war on US for rejecting ultimatum to withdraw from Cuba.
1908 Auto racing legend Ralph DePalma makes his debut in New York.
1913 Woolworth Building opens in New York City. It was the world’s tallest building.
1915 The Ottomans begin a military campaign which claimed the lives of over a million Armenians.
1953 British statesman Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
1965 President Sukarno orders the seizure of all foreign-owned property in Indonesia.
1967 Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov is killed when parachute straps of his spacecraft get entangled.
1968 Mauritius becomes a member of the United Nations.
1970 China launches its first satellite.
1971 Soviet cosmonauts link up with unmanned satellite prior to attempt to build world’s first orbiting space laboratory.
1986 Duchess of Windsor dies aged 89.
1989 Rebels shell eastern Afghanistan city of Jalalabad, killing at least 54 people.
1990 The US space shuttle Discovery takes the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit.
1992 The Peshawar Accord is signed in Afghanistan. The peace and power sharing agreement established the post-communist Islamic State of Afghanistan.
1993 Oliver Tambo, South African politician and anti-apartheid activist, dies.
1995 UAE Cabinet approves the anti-drug law.
1997 Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan agree to cut troop levels along frontier.
2003 A filling station for hydrogen-powered vehicles, the first in the world is opened in Iceland.
2004 Dutch prince John Friso, the second son of Queen Beatrix, gives up right to throne for love after marrying human rights activist Mabel Wisse Smit.
2006 Three bombings hit an Egyptian beach resort in Sinai killing at least 21 people.
2007 Gunmen kill 65 Ethiopians and nine Chinese in a raid on an oil field in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
2009 Mexico shuts down schools, museums, libraries and theatres across the capital to contain a swine flu outbreak.
2011 An Indian guru Sri Satya Sai Baba dies in hospital in Puttaparthi, India.
2013 An eight-storey building in Savar, Bangladesh collapses leaving a thousand people dead.
2014 UAE and Argentina sign a Memorandum of Cooperation in the field of peaceful nuclear energy.
2016 Brightpoint Royal Women’s Hospital opens in Abu Dhabi.
2017 Maoist rebels kill 24 paramilitary commandos in Chhattisgarh, India.
