1997 A packed public transport bus plummeted off a Cairo bridge onto the bank of the Nile River, killing 38 passengers and injuring at least 29. Police said the bus, with an estimated 70 people on board, had veered off the Sahel bridge in the Cairo district of Rod Al Farag, flipping over several times before it landed upside down on the Nile bank. The bus was speeding and the driver lost control while negotiating a bend.
Other important events
1809 - England and Spain form alliance against Napoleon Bonaparte.
1814 - Denmark cedes Norway to Sweden in Treaty of Kiel.
1867 - Peru declares war on Spain.
1907 - Earthquake in Jamaica destroys Kingston and takes 1,000 lives.
1912 - Raymond Poincare becomes premier of France.
1929 - Afghan King Amanullah is forced to resign.
1950 - United States recalls all consular personnel from China.
1953 - Josip Broz Tito is elected President of Yugoslavia.
1966 - Indonesia closes its mission at United Nations.
1974 - World Football League is founded.
1975 - Soviet Union breaks trade agreement with US.
1992 - Israel opens peace talks with Jordan and resumes bargaining with Palestinians.
1993 - As many as 54 people die when a Polish ferry capsizes during a fierce storm in the Baltic Sea.
1994 - Ukraine and the US sign a landmark deal on scrapping Ukraine’s nuclear arsenal.
1996 - Alvaro Arzu is sworn in as Guatemala’s new President.
2000 - A UN tribunal sentences five Bosnian Croats to up to 25 years in prison for killing of over 100 Bosnian Muslims.
2002 - Raed Al Karmi, leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, is killed in West Bank.
2008 - Republican Bobby Jindal, the first elected Indian-American governor in the United States, takes office in Louisiana.
2011 - Tunisian President Zine Al Abidine Bin Ali steps down after 24 years in power.
2012 - A South Korean fuel tanker sinks near Jawol island after an explosion on board, leaving five crew members dead.
2013 - Prince Saud Bin Nayef is named Governor of Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.
2014 - At least 200 South Sudanese civilians are drowned in a ferry accident in the White Nile river while fleeing fresh fighting between government forces and rebels.
2016 - British actor Alan Rickman, 69, one of the great Hollywood villains, dies of cancer.
