Today in History

May 13

1809 - The French army under Napoleon Bonaparte takes Vienna. 1846 - US declares war on Mexico.

1861 - The first railway line from Karachi to Kotri is opened.

1939 - The first commercial FM radio station in the US is launched, in Bloomfield.

1950 - The first Formula One World Championship race is held at Silverstone, England.

1952 - The Rajya Sabha (the Upper House of India’s parliament) holds its first sitting.

1981 - Pope John Paul II is shot and seriously wounded in Rome by Mehmet Ali Agca.

1994 - Palestinian police enter Jericho on the heels of Israeli soldiers, and are mobbed by crowds celebrating the end of 27 years of occupation.

1995 - British mountaineer Alison Hargreaves becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest unaided.

1996 - More than 450 are killed in a severe tornado in Bangladesh. 1999 - Yugoslavia withdraws 120 of its 40,000 troops from Kosovo. 2000 - The second new runway at Dubai International Airport becomes operational.

2002 - The UAE and China sign an agreement on legal and judicial cooperation, which includes a treaty to extradite criminals.

2008 - Bombs rip through crowded parts of Jaipur in western India, killing 60.

2011 - More than 80 people are killed and over 100 injured in twin suicide bomb attacks in northwest Pakistan.