Echoes of Time (On This Day Archive)
Year 1987
Iran–Iraq War: U.S. Navy forces destroyed two Iranian oil platforms in the Persian Gulf in response to an Iranian missile attack on a Kuwaiti oil tanker three days earlier.
Logged on: 19 October 2026Year 1993
Nihilism, the first professional runway show from the British designer Alexander McQueen, was staged in London.
Logged on: 18 October 2026Year 1964
Prime Minister Robert Menzies inaugurated the artificial Lake Burley Griffin (pictured) in the centre of the Australian capital Canberra.
Logged on: 17 October 2026Year 2017
The Maltese journalist and anti-corruption activist Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed in a car bomb attack in Bidnija.
Logged on: 16 October 2026Year 2007
New Zealand Police conducted several anti-terrorism raids in relation to the discovery of an alleged paramilitary training camp in the Urewera mountain ranges, arresting 17 people and seizing four guns and 230 rounds of ammunition.
Logged on: 15 October 2026Year 2011
Michael Woodford was dismissed as the CEO of the optics manufacturer Olympus after uncovering internal financial misconduct, escalating the corporate scandal into one of the largest in Japanese business history.
Logged on: 14 October 2026Year 2019
At the Chicago Marathon, Kenyan runner Brigid Kosgei (pictured) set the marathon world record for women running in a mixed-sex race.
Logged on: 13 October 2026Year 1992
An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.8 or 5.9 struck south of Cairo, Egypt, killing 545 people.
Logged on: 12 October 2026Year 2002
A bomb exploded in the Myyrmanni shopping center in Helsinki, Finland (aftermath pictured), resulting in seven deaths and 159 injuries.
Logged on: 11 October 2026Year 2004
Eight-year-old Huang Na was abducted and murdered; her body was found three weeks later after a search across Singapore and Malaysia.
Logged on: 10 October 2026Year 1952
A footman shot and killed two colleagues and wounded the lady of the house at Knowsley Hall, England.
Logged on: 9 October 2026Year 1991
Croatian War of Independence: The Yugoslav People's Army conducted an air strike on Banski Dvori, the official residence of the president of Croatia in Zagreb.
Logged on: 7 October 2026Year 2000
Denouncing corruption in Argentine president Fernando de la Rúa's administration and the Senate, Vice President Carlos Álvarez resigned.
Logged on: 6 October 2026Year 1994
Swiss police found the bodies of 48 members of the Order of the Solar Temple, who had died in a cult mass murder-suicide.
Logged on: 5 October 2026Year 1927
Gutzon Borglum and approximately 400 workers began sculpting Mount Rushmore.
Logged on: 4 October 2026Year 2013
A boat carrying migrants from Libya to Italy sank off the Italian island of Lampedusa, resulting in more than 360 deaths.
Logged on: 3 October 2026Year 2018
The Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.
Logged on: 2 October 2026Year 2017
A lone gunman fired more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition from his hotel suite on a crowd attending the Route 91 Harvest music festival on the Las Vegas Strip, resulting in 60 deaths and 867 injuries.
Logged on: 1 October 2026Year 2019
President Martín Vizcarra dissolved the Congress of Peru, resulting in a constitutional crisis.
Logged on: 30 September 2026Year 2005
John Roberts became the 17th Chief Justice of the United States; he would be the first Chief Justice to serve for twenty years since Melville Fuller in 1908.
Logged on: 29 September 2026Year 2023
The Sycamore Gap tree (pictured) in Northumberland, England, was illegally felled.
Logged on: 28 September 2026Year 1996
The Taliban drove Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani out of Kabul, tortured and murdered former president Mohammad Najibullah, and established the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
Logged on: 27 September 2026Year 2010
Scottish aid worker Linda Norgrove and three Afghan colleagues were kidnapped by members of the Taliban in Kunar Province, Afghanistan.
Logged on: 26 September 2026Year 1981
Sandra Day O'Connor (pictured) became the first female justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Logged on: 25 September 2026Year 2019
The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom unanimously ruled that advice given by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to Queen Elizabeth II that Parliament should be prorogued was unlawful.
Logged on: 24 September 2026Year 2019
The British travel company Thomas Cook Group ceased operations with immediate effect, leaving around 600,000 tourists stranded around the world.
Logged on: 23 September 2026Year 2003
Dolphin, the first emulator for the GameCube that could run commercial video games, was released.
Logged on: 22 September 2026Year 2013
Unidentified gunmen began a three-day attack on the upmarket Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, resulting in the deaths of 67 people with at least another 175 wounded.
Logged on: 21 September 2026Year 1988
British prime minister Margaret Thatcher gave a landmark speech at the Belfry of Bruges, Belgium, against federalism in the European Economic Community.
Logged on: 20 September 2026Year 1991
Ötzi, a well-preserved natural mummy of a man dating from about 3300 BC, was discovered by two German tourists in the Alps.
Logged on: 19 September 2026Year 1962
Aeroflot Flight 213 crashed into a mountain near Chersky Airport, killing 32 people.
Logged on: 18 September 2026Year 2018
The Israeli Air Force conducted missile strikes that hit multiple targets in western Syria; Syrian air defences responding to the strikes accidentally downed a Russian plane.
Logged on: 17 September 2026Year 2013
A lone gunman fatally shot twelve people and injured three others at the headquarters of the Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington, D.C.
Logged on: 16 September 2026Year 2020
The Abraham Accords were signed in Washington, D.C. (signatories pictured), normalizing relations between Israel and two Arab nations, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
Logged on: 15 September 2026Year 2003
The first public release of Steam, a distribution service for computer games, was made available for download.
Logged on: 12 September 2026Year 2012
The American consulate and CIA annex in Libya were attacked by a heavily armed group, resulting in the deaths of U.S. ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three others.
Logged on: 11 September 2026Year 2017
Hurricane Irma made landfall on Cudjoe Key, Florida, as a Category 4, after causing catastrophic damage throughout the Caribbean.
Logged on: 10 September 2026Year 2001
Two al-Qaeda attackers assassinated Ahmad Shah Massoud, a pivotal Afghan resistance leader, two days before the September 11 attacks in the United States.
Logged on: 9 September 2026Year 1991
At the Tailhook Association symposium in Las Vegas, U.S. Navy and Marine Corps aviators were alleged to have sexually assaulted 90 persons.
Logged on: 8 September 2026Year 2022
Liz Truss (pictured) succeeded Boris Johnson as prime minister following the July 2022 United Kingdom government crisis.
Logged on: 6 September 2026Year 1977
NASA launched the space probe Voyager 1, currently the farthest spacecraft from Earth, from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
Logged on: 5 September 2026Year 1967
Paddy Roy Bates proclaimed HM Fort Roughs, a former World War II Maunsell Sea Fort in the North Sea off the coast of Suffolk, England, as an independent sovereign state: the Principality of Sealand (pictured).
Logged on: 2 September 2026Year 1972
In a match widely publicized as a Cold War confrontation, American chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer became the 11th World Chess Champion with his victory over Soviet Boris Spassky.
Logged on: 1 September 2026Year 2002
Typhoon Rusa made landfall in Goheung as the most powerful typhoon to hit South Korea in 43 years, killing at least 236 people.
Logged on: 31 August 2026Year 1984
Discovery, the third orbiter of NASA's Space Shuttle program, lifted off on its maiden voyage from Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
Logged on: 30 August 2026Year 2007
Six nuclear warheads were mistakenly loaded onto a United States Air Force heavy bomber that flew from North Dakota to Louisiana.
Logged on: 29 August 2026Year 1973
Swedish police used gas bombs to end a seven-day hostage situation in Stockholm; the hostages had bonded with their captors during the incident, leading to the term Stockholm syndrome.
Logged on: 28 August 2026Year 1979
The Troubles: the IRA ambushed and killed 18 British soldiers near Warrenpoint, and assassinated Lord Mountbatten on his boat at Mullaghmore.
Logged on: 27 August 2026Year 2008
After a ceasefire was reached in the Russo-Georgian War, Russia recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Logged on: 26 August 2026Year 2012
The skeleton of King Richard III of England was discovered under a car park in Leicester.
Logged on: 25 August 2026Year 1992
Hurricane Andrew, the third-most intense Category 5 cyclone to impact the United States in the 20th century, made landfall in southern Florida.
Logged on: 24 August 2026Year 1989
Singing Revolution: Approximately two million people joined hands to form a human chain spanning 675.5 kilometres (419.7 mi) across the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian Soviet republics to demonstrate their desire for independence.
Logged on: 23 August 2026Year 2003
Roy Moore, Alabama's chief justice, was suspended after refusing to comply with a U.S. federal court order to remove a rock inscribed with the Ten Commandments from the lobby of the Supreme Court of Alabama building.
Logged on: 22 August 2026Year 2007
BioShock was released in North America, becoming a critical success and a demonstration of video games as an art form.
Logged on: 21 August 2026Year 2018
Silent Sam, a Confederate monument on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was toppled by protestors.
Logged on: 20 August 2026Year 2005
Thunderstorms in southern Ontario, Canada, spawned at least three tornadoes that caused over C$500 million in damage.
Logged on: 19 August 2026Year 2008
Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf resigned under pressure from a movement to impeach him.
Logged on: 18 August 2026Year 1959
American musician Miles Davis released Kind of Blue, which became one of the best-selling and most critically acclaimed jazz recordings of all time.
Logged on: 17 August 2026Year 1986
Typhoon Wayne formed over the South China Sea, going on to become one of the longest-lived tropical cyclones in the north-western Pacific, lasting 21 days.
Logged on: 16 August 2026Year 2010
The inaugural edition of the Youth Olympic Games opened in Singapore for athletes aged between 14 and 18.
Logged on: 14 August 2026Year 2016
The state-owned Taedonggang Brewing Company inaugurated the first beer festival in North Korea.
Logged on: 12 August 2026Year 1979
Two Aeroflot passenger jets collided in mid-air near Dniprodzerzhynsk in the Ukrainian SSR, killing all 178 people on both aircraft.
Logged on: 11 August 2026Year 1966
The Heron Road Bridge in Ottawa, Canada, collapsed during its construction, killing nine workers.
Logged on: 10 August 2026Year 2018
A civilian school bus in Dahyan, Yemen, was bombed by Saudi Arabia killing at least 40 children under 15.
Logged on: 9 August 2026Year 1998
The Iranian consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, was raided by Taliban leading to the death of 10 Iranian diplomats and an Iranian journalist.
Logged on: 8 August 2026Year 1998
Car bombs exploded simultaneously at the American embassies in the East African capital cities of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, killing more than 200 people and injuring more than 4,000 others.
Logged on: 7 August 2026Year 2013
A gas leak caused an explosion that collapsed a building and led to the deaths of 22 people in Rosario, Argentina.
Logged on: 6 August 2026Year 2011
NASA launched the Juno probe to Jupiter as part of the New Frontiers program.
Logged on: 5 August 2026Year 2005
Mauritanian president Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya was overthrown in a military coup while he attended the funeral of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia.
Logged on: 3 August 2026Year 2008
A taxi driver is murdered in Bangkok by a teenager addicted to video games leading to the Thai government banning the sale of Grand Theft Auto.
Logged on: 2 August 2026Year 2009
A shooting at a branch of the Israeli LGBT organization the Aguda in Tel Aviv resulted in two deaths.
Logged on: 1 August 2026Year 2002
Hamas attackers detonated a bomb at the Mount Scopus campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, killing nine students and injuring about 100 more.
Logged on: 31 July 2026Year 2018
Emmerson Mnangagwa (pictured) was elected to his first full term as president, having served as leader since the 2017 Zimbabwean coup d'état.
Logged on: 30 July 2026Year 1938
The Essential Commodities Reserves Act, which allowed the British government to build up reserves of essential commodities in anticipation of war, received royal assent.
Logged on: 29 July 2026Year 2001
At the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, Australian Ian Thorpe became the first swimmer to win six gold medals at a single FINA world championship.
Logged on: 28 July 2026Year 2020
A major oil spill from the Colonial Pipeline was discovered in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina (system map pictured).
Logged on: 27 July 2026Year 2016
Hillary Clinton (pictured) became the first female nominee for president of the United States by a major political party at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
Logged on: 26 July 2026Year 2007
Pratibha Patil was sworn in as the first female president of India.
Logged on: 25 July 2026Year 2019
Boris Johnson became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after winning the Conservative Party leadership election.
Logged on: 24 July 2026Year 1995
Hale–Bopp, one of the most widely observed comets of the 20th century, was independently discovered by astronomers Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp.
Logged on: 23 July 2026Year 1976
Japan completed its last reparation to the Philippines for war crimes committed during imperial Japan's conquest of the country in the Second World War.
Logged on: 22 July 2026Year 2013
Nour Ahmad Nikbakht, an Iranian diplomat in Yemen, was kidnapped by al-Qaeda militants and held hostage for the next two years.
Logged on: 21 July 2026Year 2015
A suicide attack (aftermath pictured) in Suruç, Turkey, for which Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claimed responsibility, killed 34 people and injured 104 others.
Logged on: 20 July 2026Year 1989
American actress Rebecca Schaeffer was shot and killed by Robert John Bardo, eventually prompting the passage of anti-stalking laws in California.
Logged on: 18 July 2026Year 1996
TWA Flight 800 exploded in mid-air and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, New York.
Logged on: 17 July 2026Year 2004
Millennium Park, a public park in Chicago, Illinois, and one of the world's largest rooftop gardens, opened to the public.
Logged on: 16 July 2026Year 2003
Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA operative was leaked to and published by journalist Robert Novak.
Logged on: 14 July 2026Year 2003
French Directorate General for External Security personnel aborted an operation to rescue Colombian politician Íngrid Betancourt from FARC guerrillas, resulting in a political scandal.
Logged on: 13 July 2026Year 1998
France defeated the defending champions Brazil 3–0 to win their first FIFA World Cup title.
Logged on: 12 July 2026Year 1982
Italy defeated West Germany 3–1 to win their third FIFA World Cup title.
Logged on: 11 July 2026Year 2006
Typhoon Ewiniar made landfall in South Korea, causing damages across the country amounting to 2.06 trillion won (US$1.4 billion).
Logged on: 10 July 2026Year 1981
Nintendo released the arcade game Donkey Kong, which featured the debut of Mario, one of the most famous characters in video-game history.
Logged on: 9 July 2026Year 2014
German citizen Lars Mittank disappeared from Varna Airport, Bulgaria; his last known movements were widely watched on YouTube.
Logged on: 8 July 2026Year 1983
After writing a letter to Soviet premier Yuri Andropov, American schoolgirl Samantha Smith visited the Soviet Union as Andropov's personal guest, becoming known as "America's Youngest Ambassador".
Logged on: 7 July 2026Year 2013
Gunmen attacked a secondary school in Mamudo, Yobe State, Nigeria, killing 42 people, mostly students.
Logged on: 6 July 2026Year 1687
Sir Isaac Newton publishes his groundbreaking 'Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica', detailing his laws of motion.
Logged on: 5 July 2026Year 1776
The Continental Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia.
Logged on: 4 July 2026Year 1886
Karl Benz officially unveils the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, widely regarded as the first modern automobile.
Logged on: 3 July 2026Year 1964
U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the historic Civil Rights Act into law.
Logged on: 2 July 2026