This day in history

Long-standing border disputes and political turmoil in Iran prompt Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to launch an invasion of Iran’s oil-producing province of Khuzestan. After initial advances, the Iraqi offence was repulsed.

In 1982, Iraq voluntarily withdrew and sought a peace agreement, but the Ayatollah Khomeini renewed fighting. Stalemates and the deaths of thousands of young Iranian conscripts in Iraq followed. Population centres in both countries were bombed and Iraq employed the use of chemical weapons. In the Persian Gulf, a tanker war curtailed shipping and increased oil prices.

In 1988, Iran agreed to a ceasefire.

The British journalist John Simpson smuggles himself into Afghanistan and is the only journalist broadcasting from the country prior the American led attack to depose the Taliban regime.

Thousands of civilians flee the fighting in Kosovo as Serbian troops resume their fight against the Kosovo Liberation Army.

The fragile ceasefire agreement in Northern Ireland is spectacularly blown apart when the Provisional IRA explode a series of bombs throughout the country.

The United Nations Security Council unanimously passes a resolution calling for an unconditional ceasefire in the Indo-Pakistani War. The fighting stops the next day. 

Shaka, founder of the Zulu Kingdom of southern Africa, is murdered by his two half-brothers, Dingane and Mhlangana, after Shaka’s mental illness threatened to destroy the Zulu tribe.