Today in History: Strong earthquake kills up to 12,000 in Mexico in 1985

The following are some of the major events which occurred on September 19:

1955 – Encircled by revolutionary forces, President Juan Peron of Argentina resigned and fled into exile.

1961 – Jamaica voted in a referendum to secede from the West Indies Federation.

1985 – Up to 12,000 people were killed and 40,000 injured when an earthquake hit Mexico City and the adjoining region. The quake measured 8.1 on the Richter scale.

1994 – Thousands of U.S. troops swept ashore in Haiti in an attempt to restore democracy.

2000 – European farmers, truckers and fishermen launched fuel protests from the North Sea to the Mediterranean, with crude oil prices close to 10-year highs.

2002 – South Korean troops enter demilitarised zone separating North and South to clear a path through minefields for transport links following historic agreement days earlier.

2002 – Ivory Coast’s former military ruler Robert Guei was killed as loyalist troops fought gun battles with mutinous soldiers resisting retirement from the army in what the government said was a failed coup.

2004 – Jiang Zemin gave up the top job in China’s military, handing over the post to Communist Party chief Hu Jintao and completing an historic transition to a younger generation of leaders.

2005 – NASA unveiled a $104-billion plan to return Americans to the moon by 2018 aboard a capsule-like vehicle that the space agency’s chief described as “Apollo on steroids”.

2006 – Thai military stages coup as Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra prepares to address the United Nations.

2011 – New York Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera sets Major League Baseball record with 602 saves.

(Reuters)