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SCMP Reporter

In Hong Kong

1962: Yehudi Menuhin, the distinguished violinist, said Hong Kong was 'perhaps the greatest Chinese city in the world today', while he was here for a recital at City Hall. He said he was impressed by the Chinese people and 'their way of life, their sense of values, their sense of reality and their great intelligence'.

1964: Prince Souvanna Phouma, the prime minister of Laos, arrived under heavy police guard following a series of talks with leaders in Beijing. He would not speak to the press. On the same day, Beijing called for the three quarrelling factions in Laos to unite behind the prime minister.

1972: For rent: Shan Kwong Road, Happy Valley. Apartment of about 1,300 square feet with living and dining room, two bedrooms, fully furnished. Monthly rent $2,300 including management rates.

Around the world

1241: Mongol horsemen under Batu Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, defeated the Teutonic Knights at Liegnitz, Silesia.

1553: French writer Francois Rabelais, noted for his satirical masterpiece Gargantua And Pantagruel, died.

1626: Francis Bacon, English statesman and writer, died.

1865: The US civil war ended when Confederate General Robert E Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S Grant.

1914: The first ever colour feature film, The World, The Flesh, And The Devil, opened at the Holborn Empire in London.

1940: Germany launched its invasion of Denmark and Norway in World War II.

1959: Frank Lloyd Wright, influential American architect, died. His buildings include the earthquake-proof Imperial Hotel in Tokyo and the Guggenheim Museum of Art in New York.

1960: South African Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd was wounded in an assassination attempt.

1969: The supersonic air-craft Concorde made its maiden flight, from Bristol to Fairford in England.

1977: The Spanish Communist Party was legalised after a 38-year ban.

1981: In Northern Ireland, IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands won a seat in the British Parliament in the Fermanagh and South Tyrone by-election.

1990: The Hungarian Democratic Forum swept to power after 40 years of communism.

1991: Georgia declared its independence from the Soviet Union, the second former USSR republic to do so.

1998: In Saudi Arabia, 119 Muslim pilgrims were crushed to death in a stampede at the haj pilgrimage.

1999: Niger President Ibrahim Bare Mainassara was assassinated at Niamey airport by dissident soldiers.

1999: The speaker of the Russian Duma, Gennady Seleznyov, said Russia's nuclear missiles had been re-targeted on NATO nations bombing Yugoslavia. The Kremlin later denied it.

2000: G8 nations environment ministers ended a meeting in the Japanese city of Otsu by agreeing that an early ratification of the Kyoto Protocol was necessary and achievable by 2002.



Today in history