HISTORY AT A GLANCE

TODAY is Monday, March 27, the 86th day of 2017. There are 279 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:

1977 – Tenerife airport disaster: Two Boeing 747 airliners collide on a foggy runway on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, killing 583 (all 248 on KLM and 335 on Pan Am). Sixty-one survived on the Pan Am flight. This is the worst aviation accident in history. 1980 – The Norwegian oil platform Alexander L. Kielland collapses in the North Sea, killing 123 of its crew of 212. 1986 – A car bomb explodes at Russell Street Police HQ in Melbourne, killing one police officer and injuring 21 people. 1993 – Jiang Zemin is appointed President of the People’s Republic of China. 1993 – Italian former minister and Christian Democracy leader Giulio Andreotti is accused of mafia allegiance by the tribunal of Palermo. 1998 – The Food and Drug Administration approves Viagra for use as a treatment for male impotence, the first pill to be approved for this condition in the United States. 1999 – Kosovo War: Yugoslav SAM downed F-117A, the first and only kill of the stealth aircraft. 2002 – Passover massacre: A Palestinian suicide bomber kills 29 people partaking of the Passover meal in Netanya, Israel. 2002 – Nanterre massacre: In Nanterre, France, a gunman opens fire at the end of a town council meeting, resulting in the deaths of eight councilors and the injury of 19 others. 2004 – HMS Scylla, a decommissioned Leander-class frigate, is sunk as an artificial reef off Cornwall, the first of its kind in Europe. 2009 – The dam forming Situ Gintung, an artificial lake in Indonesia, fails, killing at least 99 people. 2009 – A suicide bomber kills at least 48 at a mosque in the Khyber Agency of Pakistan. 2013 – A 6.0-magnitude earthquake strikes near Taipei, Taiwan, injuring 97 people. 2013 – Canada becomes the first country to announce its intention to withdraw from the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. 2014 – Philippines signs a peace accord with the largest Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, ending decades of conflict. 2015 – Al-Shabab militants attack and temporarily occupy a Mogadishu hotel leaving at least 20 people dead.