1993 Japan’s tallest building opened amid pomp and fanfare in Yokohama, south of Tokyo. But what was almost as remarkable as its height was how much of it was empty. The 270 billion yen complex, which overlooks the Pacific Ocean, has two main structures — the 70-storey Landmark Tower, which contains a hotel and offices, and the five-storey Landmark Plaza, a shopping mall. Total floor space is 388,201 square metres, of which 162,000 square metres is office space. A Mitsubishi Estate official said the hotel and the mall had been leased out, but about 40 per cent of the offices were still empty. Mitsubishi Estate unveiled the project in 1988, at the height of the “bubble economy” of inflated land and stock prices, and construction started in March 1990. The tower was designed by US architect Hugh Stubbins.
Other important events
1809 Revolt breaks out in upper Peru against Spanish authority.
1918 Russia’s Czar Nicholas II, his wife and their five children are executed by the Bolsheviks.
1921 Greek forces defeat Turks at Kutania in Turkey.
1925 First elected parliament in Iraq opens in Baghdad.
1945 First atomic bomb is exploded by the United States over the desert in New Mexico.
1948 The Vickers Viscount, the world’s first turbine-propeller aircraft, makes its maiden flight in Australia.
1951 Belgium’s King Leopold III abdicates and is succeeded by his son Baudouin.
1965 The Mont Blanc Tunnel linking France and Italy opens.
1969 US Apollo 11 spacecraft is launched from Florida.
1979 Saddam Hussain takes over as president of Iraq.
1981 Dr Mahathir Mohammad is sworn in as Malaysian Prime Minister.
1990 Ukraine declares independence.
1994 The first fragment from comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashes into Jupiter, creating a 1,930-kilometre-wide fireball.
1995 Amazon.com opens its website to the public.
2001 The leaders of Russia and China sign their first friendship treaty for half a century.
2004 A major fire sweeps through a school complex in Tamil Nadu, killing 90 schoolchildren.
2007 A 6.8 magnitude earthquake strikes northwestern Japan, killing at least eight people.
2015 European Central Bank raises emergency funding to Greek banks by €900 million.
