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SCMP Reporter

In Hong Kong

1959: The SCMP Scamps

retained the Ernest Borel Shield when they beat the Hong Kong Standard Tigers in the fourth annual pressmen's softball match at King's Park.

1963: Three people were killed and at least 51 injured as Typhoon Faye lashed the territory. Many squatter huts were destroyed by winds of up to 145km/h.

1971: Share prices hit record peaks on Hong Kong's stock market in a frenzied history-making buying spree. Turnover on the colony's three stock exchanges totalled $181.7 million.

Around the world

1666: The Great Fire of London ended after destroying much of the city following its outbreak on September 2. Ninety-seven churches burned to the ground, including St Paul's Cathedral.

1813: The French army was defeated by the Allied European armies at Dennewitz, Germany, during the Napoleonic Wars.

1880: The first cricket Test match in England was played at the Oval, between England and Australia.

1914: In World War I, the first Battle of the Marne began along a 500-km front when the French launched a counter-offensive against the German advance.

1940: King Carol II of Romania was forced to abdicate by the Axis powers in World War II in favour of his son Michael.

1955: Anti-Greek riots broke out in Istanbul and Izmir, Turkey.

1965: India invaded west

Pakistan in an attack aimed at Lahore to prevent further Pakistani offensives against India in Kashmir. About 2,500 Indians died in the 17-day war.

1966: South Africa's prime minister from 1958, Henrik Frensch Verwoerd, was killed in parliament by Dimtric Tsafondas, a parliamentary messenger. Verwoerd was responsible for much of the apartheid legislation.

1970: Palestinian guerillas hijacked four planes headed for New York from Europe.

One Pan Am Jumbo was blown up the next day in Cairo and two Boeing 707s, which landed at Dawson's field in Jordan, were blown up on September 12. The fourth plane landed in London and hijacker Leila Khaled was arrested.

1975: In Turkey, an earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale devastated the town of Lice and surrounding villages. At least 2,350 people were killed and 3,000 injured.

1988: Thomas Gregory, aged 11, became the youngest person to swim the English Channel from Cap Griz-Nez to Shakespeare Point, Dover. The crossing took 11 hours and 54 minutes.

1991: The Soviet Union recognised the Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as independent.

1994: Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds held his government's first talks with Gerry Adams, head of the IRA's political wing Sinn Fein.

1997: Diana, Princess of Wales, was buried in the grounds of her family home, Althorp; the TV audience for the funeral was estimated at over two billion.

1998: Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, dubbed the emperor of Japanese cinema for films such as The Seven Samurai and Rashomon, died aged 88.



Today in history