NOW & THEN

0 On this day in 1703, Daniel Defoe was pelted with flowers in the pillory after publishing a politically satirical pamphlet seven adults.

1987: More than 400 people, including 275 Iranian pilgrims, died in clashes with police in Mecca during annual Haj.

1987: A tornado in Edmonton, Canada, killed 27 people and causing $330 million of damage.

1988: The last Playboy club closed in Lansing, Michigan.

1990: Bosnia-herzegovina declared independence.

1991: Presidents George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev signed a long-range nuclear weapons reduction pact.

1992: A Thai airbus crashed into a mountain at Katmandu, with the loss of 113 lives.

2006: Fidel Castro handed over power temporarily to brother Raúl Castro.

2007: Operation Banner, the presence of the British Army in Northern Ireland, came to an end.