This Day in History: Cyprus (south) removes concrete barrier that divided the island for decades

The following are some of the major events to have occurred on March 8:

1921 – Spanish Prime Minister Eduardo Dato was assassinated by anarchists near his home in Madrid.

1994 – Sixty-four people were killed and 370 injured when a train packed with mainly black commuters was derailed near Durban, South Africa.

1999 – The New York Yankees baseball legend Joe DiMaggio, briefly married to Marilyn Monroe, died aged 84.

2001 – A Chilean appeals court ruled 2-1 that former dictator Augusto Pinochet could be tried for human rights abuses that occurred after his 1973 coup.

2005 – The Chechen rebel leader and former elected president Aslan Maskhadov was killed by Russian troops fighting to quell a long rebellion in the mainly Muslim Caucasus region.

2007 – The Republic of Cyprus dismantled a key concrete barrier that divided the island’s capital Nicosia for decades, calling on Turkey to respond by withdrawing its troops from the area.

2007 – Cruz Hernandez, a Salvadoran woman believed to be 128 years old and possibly the world’s oldest person, died.

2011 – Actor Ben Affleck attends House Foreign Affairs Committee Hearing on Africa.

2012 – Female-only internet cafe opens in Kabul.

2012 – Modern Olympic memorabilia including torch from 1948 auctioned.

2017 – Storms destroy Azure Window, a natural arch on Maltese island Gozo.

(Reuters)