12 June 2002

Air India Flight 171 (wreckage pictured) crashed shortly after take-off in Ahmedabad, India, killing 260 people.

An Islamic terrorist killed 49 people in a mass shooting at the gay nightclub Pulse in Orlando, Florida.

Sixteen-year-old Abby Sunderland was rescued after her boat was dismasted in the Indian Ocean while trying to become the youngest sailor around the world.

In the aftermath of the bombing of Yugoslavia and the Kosovo War, the NATO-led Kosovo Force entered the territory with a mandate of establishing a secure environment.

The Boeing 777, the world's largest twinjet, made its maiden flight.

More than 150 Sri Lankan Tamil civilians were massacred by members of the military in the village of Kokkadichcholai.

Cold War: During a speech at the Brandenburg Gate by the Berlin Wall, US president Ronald Reagan challenged Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall!" (speech featured).

Raiders of the Lost Ark, the first film in the Indiana Jones franchise, was released.

American serial killer David Berkowitz, popularly known as the "Son of Sam", was sentenced to 25-years-to-life in prison for each of six killings.

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws restricting interracial marriage in the landmark civil rights case Loving v. Virginia.

The premiere was held in New York of the historical drama film Cleopatra, the most expensive film made to that point.

Dominic Savio, who was 14 years old at his death in 1857, was canonized by Pope Pius XII, making him one of the youngest non-martyred saints in the Catholic Church.

On her thirteenth birthday, Anne Frank (pictured) began keeping a diary during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands in World War II.

Soviet politician Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko authorised the use of chemical weapons against a peasant rebellion in the Tambov Governorate.

As part of the Ottoman Empire's policies of ethnic cleansing, Turkish irregulars began a six-day massacre in the predominantly Greek town of Phocaea.

Union general Ulysses S. Grant pulled his troops out of the Battle of Cold Harbor in Hanover County, Virginia, ending one of the bloodiest, most lopsided battles in the American Civil War.

Following the successful French invasion of Malta, the Knights Hospitaller surrendered Malta to Napoleon, initiating two years of occupation.

The Fifth Virginia Convention adopted a declaration of rights, an influential document that proclaimed the inherent rights of men.

Thomas Gage, the governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, offered a general pardon to colonists who remained loyal to Britain.

The Disputation of Paris, in which four rabbis defended the Talmud against Nicholas Donin's accusations of blasphemy, began in the court of King Louis IX.

South African-American businessman Elon Musk becomes the first US$ trillionaire with the initial public offering of SpaceX.

Air India Flight 171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, crashes shortly after takeoff into the B. J. Medical College, Ahmedabad, India, killing 241 out of 242 onboard as well as 19 on the ground. This marked the first fatal crash and hull loss of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

A fire in a residential building in Mangaf, Kuwait City kills at least 50 people.

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev is inaugurated as the second president of Kazakhstan.