Today in History

March 26

1872 - Thomas J Martin patents fire extinguisher.

1885 - The Eastman Dry Plate and Film Co, forerunner of Eastman Kodak, manufactures the first commercial motion picture film.

1913 - More than 1,400 perish in floods in the US states of Ohio, Indiana and Texas.

1953 - American Dr Jonas E. Salk unveils new polio vaccine.

1971 - Bangladesh declares its independence.

1979 - Egypt and Israel sign the Camp David peace treaty at the White House.

1987 - Tunisia breaks off diplomatic relations with Iran.

1990 - Police fire on demonstrators in Sebokeng, South Africa, killing 11 people and wounding hundreds.

1991 - Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay sign Treaty of Asuncion, launching the Southern Cone Common Market

1993 - United Nations Security Council votes to send 30,000 troops to Somalia, the largest and most expensive peacekeeping operation till date.

1997 - The bodies of 39 members of the Heaven’s Gate cult who committed suicide are found inside a mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, California.

2000 - Dubai Financial Market officially opens.

2001 - A boarding school fire in Kenya kills 58 boys and seriously injures 28 others.

2007 - Northern Ireland’s main Protestant and Catholic parties agree to start sharing power.

2008 - Kholoud Ahmad Jua’an Al Daheri becomes the UAE’s first woman judge.

2012 - Hollywood director James Cameron dives to the Earth’s deepest point in a specially designed submarine, making him the first man to travel alone to the depths of the Mariana Trench.