BBC ON THIS DAY | Front Page - BBC News
WEB20 February. The Soviets open a new phase in space exploration with the launch of the world's biggest space station, Mir. Two 10-year-old boys are charged with the abduction and murder of two-year-old James Bulger in Liverpool. Hundreds of people are reported to have died in Assam as fierce fighting rages in the run-up to Indian elections.
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Gilgamesh tomb believed found
WEBApr 29, 2003 · Archaeologists in Iraq believe they may have found the lost tomb of King Gilgamesh - the subject of the oldest "book" in history. Gilgamesh was believed to be two-thirds god, one-third human. The Epic Of Gilgamesh - written by a Middle Eastern scholar 2,500 years before the birth of Christ - commemorated the life of the ruler of the city of ...
BBC ON THIS DAY | 31 | 1997: Princess Diana dies in Paris crash
WEB1997: Princess Diana dies in Paris crash. Diana, Princess of Wales, has died after a car crash in Paris. She was taken to hospital in the early hours of Sunday morning where surgeons tried for two hours to save her life but she died at 0300 BST. In a statement Buckingham Palace said the Queen and the Prince of Wales were "deeply shocked and ...
BBC NEWS | Middle East | 1948: The State of Israel is founded
WEBMay 6, 2008 · 1948: The State of Israel is founded. The State of Israel was proclaimed on 14 May 1948, the culmination of nearly 2,000 years of hopes by Jewish people that they would one day return to the land from which the Romans expelled them. The Holocaust of European Jewry in the Second World War strengthened their determination.
BBC NEWS | Middle East | Saddam Hussein's last moments
WEBDec 31, 2006 · Saddam Hussein's last moments. In the wake of the execution of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein a fuller picture has gradually emerged of how his final moments played out. In an interview with the BBC, one of the witnesses, Judge Munir Haddad, gave a detailed account of what he saw, painting a …
UK | The Krays: A history of violence - BBC News
WEBApr 4, 2000 · The Krays: A history of violence. Violence became a hallmark of the Krays' lives. The Krays were the most notorious criminals of the 1960s, heading an organised underworld empire of protection rackets, violence and murder. Ronnie and Reggie Kray were identical twins, born and raised in the East End of London - …
BBC ON THIS DAY | 20 | 1974: Cyprus - 'a tragedy all round' - BBC …
WEBThe coup on Cyprus in July 1974 which overthrew Archbishop Makarios immediately sparked tensions on the island. Turkish-Cypriots feared the new Greek-backed leader, Nicos Sampson, would seek unification with Greece against their wishes. When talks between the two sides broke down, Turkey invaded northern Cyprus.
BBC NEWS | Middle East | Saddam Hussein executed in Iraq
WEBDec 30, 2006 · Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death by an Iraqi court on 5 November after a year-long trial over the killings of 148 Shias from the town of Dujail in the 1980s. In a statement, Iraq's Prime Minister, Nouri Maliki, said the execution had closed a dark chapter in Iraq's history. "Justice, in the name of the people, has carried out the death ...
BBC NEWS | South Asia | Timeline: Soviet war in Afghanistan
WEBFeb 17, 2009 · A chronology of key events around the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the decade-long war it sparked. 27 April: Afghanistan's communist People's Democratic Party seizes power in a coup but is split along ethnic lines and in-fighting begins. The country is renamed Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA).
BBC NEWS | Middle East | The Iran-Iraq war: 25 years on
WEBSep 22, 2005 · The Iran-Iraq war: 25 years on. By Roger Hardy. BBC Middle East analyst. Between half a million and 1.5 million people died in the war. Iraq invaded Iran on 22 September 1980, triggering a bitter eight-year war which destabilised the region and devastated both countries. The then Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein claimed as a …