1998 The fighting before a frenzied crowd of some 50,000, Oscar De La Hoya put on a brief but brutally efficient show by stopping Patrick Charpentier of France in the third round to retain his WBC welterweight title fight. De La Hoya of Mexico knocked down Charpentier three times in the final round, with referee Laurence Cole stopping the bout at 1:56 of the third round after the challenger went down sitting on the canvas from a final right hand. It was the fourth title defence for De La Hoya, whose Oscar’s night promotion drew one of the biggest US boxing crowds since Muhammad Ali beat Leon Spinks before 63,350 in the Superdome in New Orleans 20 years ago. De La Hoya knocked Charpentier down 53 seconds into the third round with a left hook, put him down again 37 seconds later with a left uppercut and then finished him with the right hand.
Other important events
1839 Milos Obrenovic, the king of Serbia, abdicates and is succeeded by his son Milan.
1886 Bavaria’s King Louis II drowns himself.
1944 Germany launches first V-1 missiles against London.
1946 A transcontinental round-trip flight is completed in one day, from California to Maryland and back for the first time.
1953 A military coup led by Colombia’s General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla overthrows Laureano Gomez.
1955 Mir Mine, the first diamond mine in the USSR, is discovered.
1956 The last British troops leave Suez Canal base, turning the waterway over to Egypt after operating it for 74 years.
1958 China’s first atomic reactor begins operating.
1971 Francois Mitterrand is named head of the French Socialist Party.
1973 US, North Vietnam, South Vietnam and Viet Cong sign new pact in Paris designed to reinforce Vietnam ceasefire.
1974 Army in Republic of Yemen seizes power in bloodless coup.
1982 King Khalid of Saudi Arabia dies and Crown Prince Fahd becomes the new king.
1993 Kim Campbell becomes Canada’s first female prime minister.
1994 Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela sign a free trade pact.
1997 A disastrous fire in a packed Uphaar cinema hall in Delhi’s posh Green Park area kills more than 60.
1998 Nigeria soccer team pulls off a stunning World Cup victory over Spain in Lagos.
2000 Ras Al Khaimah opens a free-trade zone to boost regional commerce.
2001 One of Mexico’s most-wanted alleged drug traffickers, Ramon Alcides Magana, is arrested.
2002 Hamid Karzai wins Afghanistan’s presidential election in a landslide vote.
2008 Three armed robbers stole two Pablo Picasso prints from a Sao Paulo art museum.
2009 Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is officially declared the president of Iran as opposition supporters protest in Tehran.
2010 More than a million are evacuated and 147 killed in China as a deadly storm strikes.
2012 A military court in Tunisia sentences ousted president Zine Al Abidine Bin Ali to 20 years imprisonment in absentia.
2014 Venice’s mayor Giorgio Orsoni resigns over corruption scam.
2017 At least 46 killed in landslides in Bangladesh.
