TODAY IN HISTORY

1915 One of the worst train disasters in British history takes place when a troop train collides with a passenger train at Gretna Green, Scotland, killing 227.

1918 German planes raid Paris, France, in World War I.

1919 Birth of Nguyễn Văn Thương, a pioneer in modern music in Việt Nam. His best known songs include Bình Trị Thiên Khói Lửa (Bình Trị Thiên in Flames and Smoke), Trên Sông Hương (On the Hương River) and Đêm Đông (Winter Night).

1930 Vietnamese students in France demonstrate in the Champs-elysees protesting against the reign of terror in French-ruled Indochina.

1939 Germany's Adolf Hitler and Italy's Benito Mussolini sign the Pact of Steel, a 10-year political and military alliance between the two nations.

1946 President Hồ Chí Minh decides to reorganise the National Guard into the National Army of the Democratic Republic of Việt Nam.

1975 White-ruled African nation of Rhodesia, now

known as Zimbab.

2006 Results from the Montenegrin independence referendum are announced. As much as 55.4 per cent of voters vote to become independent from the Serbia and Montenegro Union.

2011 An EF5 Tornado strikes the US city of Joplin, Missouri killing at least 158 people, the single deadliest US tornado since modern record keeping began in 1950.

2014 Royal Thai Armed Forces, led by General Prayut Chan-o-cha, stage a coup in Thailand, suspending the kingdom's constitution and taking control of the government, the 12th since the country's first coup in 1932.

2016 US President Barack Obama arrives in Việt Nam

for a three-day tour.

2020 Pakistan International Airlines flight crashes near Jinnah International Airport in Karachi killing 97 with just two survivors.

2022 Over 50 people are massacred by suspected Boko Haram fighters in Rann, Nigeria AP/ REUTERS/VNS