1693- Mount Etna volcano erupts in Sicily, Italy claiming the lives of 20,000 people.
1693- An earthquake hits parts of southern Italy near Sicily killing 60,000 people.
1759- The first life insurance corporation inaugurated in Philadelphia, America.
1861- Alabama secedes from the United States during the American Civil War.
1922- Using the insulin for treating diabetes for the first time in history.
1923- French and Belgian forces enter the town of Essen in the Ruhr valley, to force Germany to pay reparations in the aftermath of World War I.
1942- Japan occupies Kuala Lumpur during the World War II.
1948- Britain informs the UN that about 1974 Palestinians were killed and injured in one year at the hands of Jewish groups.
1960-Chad gains its independence from France.
1964- Panama ends its diplomatic relations with the United States.
1972 – East of Pakistan becomes Bangladesh.
1998- More than hundred people killed in a massacre in Sidi Hamid town in Algeria at the hands of the Takfiri groups.
2007-Vietnam becomes the 150th WTO member state.
Born Today:
347- Roman emperor Theodosius I.
Passed away:
1964- The first-post independence Lebanese President Bechara El Khoury.
1999- Egyptian writer and novelist Ihsan Abdel Quddous.
R. al-Jazaeri/ Ghossoun