Today in History

April 2

1860 - The first Italian parliament meets at Turin.

1916 - German troops overrun Bois de Caillette.

1935 - Sir Watson- Watt patents radar.

1937 - South Africa prohibits political activity by foreigners in Southwest Africa.

1947 - UN Security Council appoints US as trustee for Pacific islands.

1964 - Josef Klaus succeeds Alfons Gorbach as chancellor of Austria. 1981 - Three oilfield projects are launched in Delma Island, UAE. 1982 - Argentina captures Falkland Islands.

1986 - A bomb rips a hole in a TWA jetliner over southern Greece, and the blast blows a man, woman and child out of the plane to their deaths.

1988 - Philippines coup leader Gregorio ‘ Gringo’ Honasan escapes from a prison ship.

1989 - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is elected President of Palestine.

1991 - British businessman Roger Cooper celebrates freedom after spending five years in an Iranian jail. 1993 - US and Nato allies approve enforcement of a UN- imposed nofly zone over Bosnia.

1994 - Vladimir Zhirinovsky is declared leader of the ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party in Russia.

1995 - A top Hamas leader, Commander Kamal Kheil, dies in a bomb blast in Gaza.

2000 - French archaeologists announce the discovery of a 4,000- year- old queen’s pyramid south of Cairo.

2005 - Pope John Paul II dies at age 84 in his Vatican apartment.

2006 - Iran conducts its second major test of a new missile within days.

2007 - Kuwait’s new education minister, Nouriya Al Sabeeh, takes oath in parliament.

2012 - A Russian jet crashes and bursts into flame moments after taking off from Surgut, Siberia, killing 31 people.

2015 - Iran and world powers agree on the framework of a potentially historic deal after marathon talks in Switzerland.

2017 - An 11- kilometre ChenaniNashri Tunnel linking the Kashmir Valley opens. It is India’s longest tunnel.