HISTORY AT A GLANCE

TODAY is Friday, May 12, the 132nd day of 2017. There are 233 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date: 1955 – Nineteen days after bus workers went on strike in Singapore, rioting breaks out and seriously impacts Singapore’s bid for independence. 1965 – The Soviet spacecraft Luna 5 crashes on the Moon. 1968 – Vietnam War: North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces attack Australian troops defending Fire Support Base Coral, east of Lai Khe in South Vietnam on the night of 12/13 May, resulting in heavy casualties on both sides and beginning the Battle of Coral–Balmoral. 1975 – Mayaguez incident: The Cambodian navy seizes the American merchant ship SS Mayaguez in international waters. 1978 – In Zaire, rebels occupy the city of Kolwezi, the mining centre of the province of Shaba (now known as Katanga). The local government asks the USA, France and Belgium to restore order. 1982 – During a procession outside the shrine of the Virgin Mary in Fátima, Portugal, security guards overpower Juan María Fernández y Krohn before he can attack Pope John Paul II with a bayonet. Krohn, an ultraconservative Spanish priest opposed to the Vatican II reforms, believed that the Pope had to be killed for being an “agent of Moscow”. 1989 – The San Bernardino train disaster kills four people. A week later an underground gasoline pipeline explodes killing two more people. 1998 – Four students are shot at Trisakti University, leading to

widespread riots and the fall of Suharto 2003 – The Riyadh compound bombings, carried out by al

Qaeda, kill 26 people. 2006 – Mass unrest by the Primeiro Comando da Capital

begins in São Paulo (Brazil), leaving at least 150 dead. 2006 – Iranian Azeris interpret a cartoon published in an Iranian magazine as insulting, resulting in massive riots throughout the country. 2007 – Riots in which over 50 people are killed and over 100 are injured take place in Karachi upon the arrival in town of the Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. 2008 – An earthquake (measuring around 8.0 magnitude)

occurs in Sichuan, China, killing over 69,000 people. 2015 – A 7.3-magnitude earthquake and six major aftershocks

hit Nepal, killing over 200 people.