TODAY IN HISTORY

1741 Birth of Nguyễn Gia Thiều, also known as Ôn Như Hầu, Vietnamese scholar (died 1798). He left works in both the Han Chinese and demotic Vietnamese Nôm scripts including Tiên Hầu Thi Tập (Collection of Poems) and Cung Oan Ngâm Khúc (Lament of a Concubine).

1888 The French complete installation of a telegraphic communications system in Việt Nam, linking Sài Gòn, Quy Nhơn, Đà Nẵng, Huế, Vinh, and Hà Nội.

1917 The United States becomes the first country to recognise the provisional government of Russia following the collapse of the monarchy.

1945 The Arab League is formed in Cairo by Egypt,

Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.

1996 UN war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia issues the first indictments for crimes against Serbs, charging three Bosnian Muslims and a Bosnian Croat with murder, torture and rape.

2013 Israel and Turkey agree to restore full diplomatic relations after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologises in a phone call for a deadly naval raid against a Gaza-bound international flotilla in a dramatic turnaround partly brokered by President Barack Obama.

2016 Finland and Russia agree to impose temporary restrictions at two Arctic border crossing points on the Finnish–russian border following an increased flow of asylum seekers from Russia to Finland.

2017 An attacker carries out a vehicle-ramming attack outside the Houses of Parliament in London, before stabbing a police officer and subsequently being shot by security forces. Including the attacker, there are at least four people dead.

2018 US President Donald Trump imposes tariffs on US$60 billion of Chinese goods, while also limiting China’s ability to invest in the US technology industry.

2021 A massive fire at the Balukhali refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Chittagong, Bangladesh, leaves at least 15 people dead, 550 injured, 400 missing, and 45,000 homeless.