Reverse gear, July 6

Here are five important events that shaped the world on this day.

* 1964 Malawi gained its independence from Britain

Between 1953 and 1963, the Southeast African country was part of a British controlled federation called Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. After dissolution of the federation and independence, Nyasaland changed its name to Malawi.

* 1991 – A UN nuclear inspection team arrived in Iraq to test President Saddam Hussein’s promise of full co-operation, while a second team witnessed the destruction of Iraq’s last known long-range missiles.

In April 1991, as part of the permanent cease-fire agreement ending the Persian Gulf War, the UN Security Council ordered Iraq to eliminate under international supervision its biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons programs, as well as its ballistic missiles with ranges greater than 150 kilometers.

* 1999 – Israeli parliament approved Ehud Barak as prime minister.

Barak served as the tenth Prime Minister from 1999 to 2001. He was leader of the Labor Party until January 2011. He previously held the posts of Minister of Defense and Deputy Prime Minister under Ehud Olmert and then in Benjamin Netanyahu’s second government from 2007 to 2013, as he retired from politics at the end of the tenure, though he returned in June 2019 with the formation of a new party.

* 2006 Nathula Pass, a trading post between India and China opened for business

The trading post had been closed since the Sino-Indian war of 1962. Part of the Silk Road, the pass connects Tibet with the Indian state of Sikkim.

* 2013 – Islamic militants attacked a boarding school, killing at least 30 in Nigeria’s embattled northeast.

Authorities blamed the violence on Boko Haram, a radical group whose name means “Western education is sacrilege.” The militants have been behind a series of recent attacks on schools in the region, including one in which gunmen opened fire on children taking exams in a classroom.