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1967: Civil war in Nigeria
Five weeks after its secession from Nigeria, the breakaway Republic of Biafra is attacked by Nigerian government forces. Lieutenant Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu had proclaimed the independence of Nigeria's Eastern Region, home to the Igbo people, in response to the massacre of Igbos elsewhere in Nigeria. General Yakubu Gowon, the leader of the Nigerian federal government, refused to recognize Biafra's secession and on July 6 ordered an invasion. In the subsequent fighting, Ojukwu's forces made some initial advances, but Nigeria's superior military gradually reduced territory claimed by Biafra. The nascent state lost its oil fields--its main source of revenue--and without the funds to import food, roughly 1 million of the area’s civilians died as a result of severe malnutrition. In 1970, Biafra surrendered to Nigeria.
1994
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat jointly receive a United Nations Peace Prize in Paris.1988
167 men die in explosion on board the Piper Alpha oil rig in the North Sea.1978
In the Houses of Parliament in London, three bags of horse manure are hurled from the public gallery in the House of Commons during a debate on Scottish Home Rule. Yana Mintoff, daughter of the Prime Minister of Malta, is later arrested and fined.1967
Start of a civil war in Nigeria following a declaration of independence by Biafra.1966
Malawi becomes a republic within the British Commonwealth - with Dr Hastings Banda its first president.1964
In London, the premiere of the Beatles' film 'Hard Day's Night'.1952
The final service for the last tram to run in London.1944
In America, fire-eaters accidentally start a fire inside the main tent of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus - more than 160 are killed.1942
World War II: Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her family take refuge from the Nazis by hiding in the attic of a house in Amsterdam.1935
On this day Tenzin Gyatso was born. When he was two he was identified as the 13th Dalai Lama reborn and was enthroned as the 14th Dalai Lama at fifteen.