2001 - The Northern Alliance in Afghanistan received a major blow when the Taliban arrested and executed a key opponent commander and a number of his aides. According to the Taliban and Northern Alliance sources, Commander Abdul Haq (above), one of the architects of a plan to form a coalition government in Kabul, headed by former king Mohammad Zahir Shah, was captured by the militiamen of Mullah Mohammad Omar. The sources confirmed that 49 fighters of Haq, former commander of Jalalabad, including ten junior commanders, were also arrested. After their arrest, they were immediately taken to Kabul, where the Taliban executed Haq and some of his commanders under the directives of their spiritual leader Mullah Omar, after an emergency meeting.
Other important events
1863 - The Football Association (FA) is founded in England.
1917 - Brazil declares war against Germany during the First World War.
1922 - Italian government resigns under pressure from fascists and Benito Mussolini.
1936 - The first electric generator at Hoover Dam goes into full operation.
1942 - US aircraft-carrier Hornet sinks after being hit by a Japanese aircraft in the Solomon Islands battle.
1950 - Mother Teresa establishes her Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata, India.
1951 - Winston Churchill becomes British Prime Minister for the second time.
1959 - Rawalpindi is chosen as the provisional capital of Pakistan.
1967 - Shah of Iran crowns himself Emperor of Iran.
1975 - Anwar Sadat becomes the first Egyptian President to pay an official visit to the United States.
1976 - Trinidad and Tobago becomes a republic.
1979 - South Korea’s President Park Chung-hee is killed by his friend Kim Jae-kyu during an ‘accidental clash’.
1987 - US President Ronald Reagan announces an embargo on all US imports from Iran.
1994 - Jordan and Israel sign a peace treaty ending 46 years of conflict.
1997 - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak opens a new canal to carry Nile water to irrigate the arid Sinai peninsula.
2001 - US President George W. Bush signs a sweeping anti-terrorism bill into law.
2002 - Russian special forces, using gas to knock out Chechen guerrillas, storm a Moscow theatre in a dawn raid, leaving up to 119 hostages dead.
2007 - Former Philippines president Joseph Estrada walks free after six and a half years of detention.
2008 - Emirates becomes the first Middle East carrier to launch a non-stop flight to Los Angeles.
2010 - Iran announces it has begun loading fuel into the core of its first nuclear power plant.
2012 - Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s four-year prison term for tax fraud is cut to one year.
2014 - President Dilma Rousseff wins Brazil’s presidential elections.
