TODAY IN HISTORY

1811 Paraguay gains independence from Spain. Now celebrated as National Independence Day holiday.

1948 British mandate in Palestine ends, and an independent state of Israel is formed; Arab Legion of Transjordan invades Palestine and enters Jerusalem.

1955 Warsaw Pact is formed by Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union.

1963 The National Front for the Liberation of South Việt Nam issues a declaration protesting the repression of Buddhist monks and believers by the Ngô Đình Diệm Administration.

1972 Okinawa reverts to Japan after 27 years under US jurisdiction.

1987 Troops storm Fiji Parliament, declaring military government after kidnapping prime minister and his cabinet in South Pacific’s first coup.

1992 Intense fighting in Sarajevo traps 350 UN personnel in the city.

1996 A Nigerian freighter with 3,500 Liberian war refugees is allowed to dock in Ghana after being turned away from African ports for 10 days.

1998 Riots convulse Jakarta and 15,000 troops take up position around the city.

2000 Tens of thousands attend the "Million Mom March" in Washington DC to demand stricter gun control and to memorialise those lost to gun violence.

2001 European Commission, the European Union’s executive body, establishes diplomatic relations with North Korea (the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea).

2004 The Constitutional Court of South Korea overturns the impeachment of President Roh Moohyun

2012 Agni Air Flight CHT crashes near Jomsom Airport in Jomsom, Nepal, after a failed go-around, killing 15 people.

2013 Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan declares a state of emergency in the northeast states of Bono, Yobe and Adamawa due to the terrorist activities of Boko Haram.

2015 NATO and the European Union at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in say they want to tighten co-operation in the face of "new threats" resuting from the situation in Ukraine, the "crisis in the south" and an influx of migrants travelling from Libya.

2016 At least 14 suicide bombers attack a complex outside Baghdad, Iraq, killing themselves and at least 6 people.

2017 France swears in Emmanuel Macron as the 25th President of France.

2018 The Catalan parliament elects hard-line separatist Quim Torra to become the President of the Generalitat of Catalonia after obtaining 66 votes in favor, 65 against and four abstentions.

2020 The Vatican announces that Pope Francis is sending a donation to Lebanon for 400 scholarships in an expression of his concern for the country’s young people.

2021 India's western state of Gujarat braces for cyclone Tauktae, reported to be the strongest storm to hit the region since 1998. AP/VNS