2002 - Iraq and India signed an agreement to bolster trade ties, including in the oil sector, the two sides announced after a meeting of a joint Iraqi-Indian commission in Baghdad. Indian Oil Minister Ram Naik (above left), who presided over the meeting along with his Iraqi counterpart Amer Mohammad Rasheed (right), told the press that the Indian oil firm Oil Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) would soon open offices in Baghdad. Naik added, “Work was progressing” on an ONGC oil concession in southern Iraq. India’s ONGC Videsh and Reliance Petrochemicals have signed an agreement with Algeria’s Sonatrach to secure an oilfield in Iraq for production of crude. ONGC Videsh Limited has sought to form a venture to produce crude from the Tuba oil field.
Other important events
1709 - Russian forces defeat Swedish forces at Poltava, Ukraine.
1792 - France declares war on Prussia.
1833 - Russia and Turkey sign defence treaty.
1858 - The British proclaim victory after a year of bitter fighting to put down the Indian Mutiny.
1885 - The Wall Street Journal is first published.
1937 - Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan sign the Treaty of Saadabad.
1940 - Norwegian government moves to London 62 days after Nazi Germany invades the country.
1950 - US General Douglas MacArthur is named commander-in-chief of UN forces in Korea.
1965 - British Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs escapes from Wandsworth prison in London.
1976 - 9,000 people are killed in earthquake in New Guinea.
1979 - France’s first and smallest, a 2,700-tonne nuclear attack submarine, is launched.
1986 - Kurt Waldheim becomes President of Austria.
1988 - More than 300 people are killed when a speeding express train plunges into a lake in Kerala.
1989 - Carlos Menem is sworn in as the 46th President of Argentina.
1991 - Dubai Cargo Village is officially opened.
1994 - Kim Il-sung, North Korea’s longtime ruler, dies.
1996 - The first Islamist-led government in Turkey narrowly wins a vote of confidence.
2000 - Venus Williams becomes only the second black women’s singles champion in Wimbledon history.
2003 - Sudan Airways Flight 39, with 116 people on board, crashes in Sudan.
2006 - Poland’s governing party accepts the resignation of Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz.
2007 - An Indian train arrives in Bangladesh on the first trial run upon resumption of rail services suspended 42 years ago.
2010 - The first solar-powered plane, a Swiss-led project, completes its 24-hour test flight and lands in Berne, Switzerland.
2016 - Pakistani’s philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi dies in Karachi, at the age of 92.
