TODAY IN HISTORY

• 2017 - Nigeria

Imo State governor, Rochas Okorocha launched a blistering attack on Willie Obiano, Anambra State governor, describing him as a clueless person who would do better as a militant than as a governor. Obiano had earlier said Okorocha was an example of what a leader should not be in response to his statement at an APC stakeholders meeting that three Southeast governors would soon join APC.

• Pan-yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, gave Pres Muhammadu Buhari a nine-day ultimatum to forward name of acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Nkanu Onnoghen to the Senate for approval.

• 2012 - Japan

The Toyota Corolla was named the best-selling car of all time. Selling over 37.5 million units.

• 2010 - USA

Avatar became the first film to gross over $2 billion worldwide.

• Beyonce, pop's reigning diva, earned six Grammys, more than any woman on a single night of the 52year-old awards show.

• 2009 - Kenya

An overturned gasoline tanker exploded as hundreds of people tried to scoop up free fuel. 120 people were killed and 200 injured in the inferno

• 2007 - UK

Suspects were arrested in Birmingham for plotting the kidnap, holding and eventual beheading of a serving Muslim British soldier in Iraq.

• 2006 - Mexico

Coretta Scott King (78), the widow of Martin Luther King Jr, died of respiratory failure in Mexico. She had turned a life shattered by her husband's assassination into one devoted to enshrining his legacy of human rights.

• 2001 - France

Michel Navratil, 92, one of the last known survivors of the sunk Titanic, died in Montpellier France.

• 1968 - Australia

Nauru gained independence from Australia. With 10,084 people in a 21square-kilometre, Nauru is smallest state in South Pacific and third smallest state in the world behind Vatican City and Monaco.

• 1946 - Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia's new constitution, modeling that of the Soviet Union, established six republics (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia).

• 1919 - USA

Jackie Robinson, first black major league baseball player, was born.