Today in History

1821 - Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador declare independence.

1857 - Timothy Alden obtains a US patent for the practical typesetting machine.

1916 - Tanks are used for the first time in war, in a British attack on German lines near the Somme in France.

1963 - Ahmad Ben Bella becomes Algeria’s first President.

1981 - Al Zahra Hospital, the UAE’s first private general hospital, opens in Sharjah.

1996 - Secessionist leader Umberto Bossi proclaims a self-styled “republic” in Italy’s affluent north.

2003 - A fire at Saudi Arabia’s largest prison, Al Hair, in Riyadh kills 67 inmates.

2011 - Denmark elects its first female prime minister.

2016 - 4 people are killed as a Karachi-bound passenger train ram into a goods train near Multan.