On this day - 1st February
Welcome to the new mid-week feature 'On this day'
From now on every Wednesday will include a look back through the pages of history at the significant events that took place on this date years ago.
Today, as we usher in the new month of February, we look back and remember Ayatollah Khomeini, the Columbia Shuttle disaster, the controversy over the fate of UK car company Rover, and the execution of Nguyễn Văn Lém.
1st Feb 1968: Nguyễn Văn Lém
Nguyễn Văn Lém was a member of the National Liberation Front who was summarily executed in Saigon by General Nguyễn Ngọc Loan during the Tet Offensive, one of the largest military campaigns of the Vietnam War. The execution was captured by photojournalist Eddie Adams and the photo became an anti-war icon. On the second day of the Tet Offensive, amid fierce street fighting, Lém was captured and brought to Brigadier General Loan, who was at the time Chief of the Republic of Vietnam National Police. He quickly executed him in front of Adams. An NBC camera-man was also present and he recorded footage of the execution, which soon spread around the world along with Adams' photo, helping to galvanise the anti-war movement.
1st Feb 1979: Exiled Ayatollah Khomeini returns to Iran
Religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini made a triumphant return to Iran after 14 years in exile. Up to five million people lined the streets of the nation's capital, Tehran, to witness the homecoming of the Shia Muslim imam who was previously imprisoned by the Shah in 1963 for his opposition to reforms. A year after his imprisonment he was expelled to Iraq, via Turkey. He spent the last few months of his exile in France, where he coordinated the revolution that forced the Shah of Iran to go into hiding a month before Khomeini made his return to the country. The Ayatollah emerged from his chartered plane looking weary and emotional and met some 1,500 religious and political leaders that were allowed to meet him in the terminal building. Following that he made slow progress as his blue and white Chevrolet forced its way through a mass of people, on its 12 mile journey south to the Cemetery of Martyrs where Mr Khomeini addressed 250,000 supporters.
1st Feb 1994: MPs condemn sale of Rover
There were angry clashes in the House of Commons over the sale of the last major British car manufacturer Rover. After a statement confirmed German car-maker BMW was buying the majority share - 80% - in Rover from British Aerospace (BAe) for £800 million, Labour leader John Smith criticised the deal for only satisfying BAe's "short-term need for cash". Politicians on both sides were then concerned that the planned takeover would leave the UK as the only Group of Seven nation without control of a leading car manufacturer. BMW made their bid to buy out BAe 10 days earlier, at around the same time as BAe's long-term partner, Honda, put forward proposals to raise its stake in Rover to 47.5%. Honda had held a 20% share in the company for 14 years but had been resistant to taking a majority share. A statement from Honda said: "Now our partner has been acquired by a competitor we must start to reassess our entire operations in Europe."
1st Feb 2003: Columbia shuttle disintegrates killing seven
The US space shuttle Columbia broke up as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere killing all seven astronauts on board. It was the first time there had been an accident on landing in the 42 years of American space flight. President George Bush told a nation in shock: "The Columbia is lost. There are no survivors." Six of the seven astronauts were US citizens. They were Rick Husband, William McCool, Michael Anderson, David Brown, and female astronauts Laurel Clark and Indian-born Kalpana Chawla. The seventh - fighter pilot Colonel Ilan Ramon - was Israel's first astronaut and was carrying with him a miniature Torah scroll of a Holocaust survivor. Columbia disintegrated just 16 minutes before it was due to land at Cape Canaveral in Florida. At 0900 local time (1400 GMT) Mission Control lost all data and contact with the crew. The US space agency Nasa then sent search teams to the Dallas-Fort Worth area amid reports of "a big bang" and TV pictures showing smoke and fireballs in the sky. Debris from the shuttle scattered across eastern Texas and western Louisiana and crashed into car parks, forests, backyards, a reservoir, a rooftop and a dentist's office. Columbia's sister ship Challenger exploded soon after take-off 17 years earlier killing six astronauts and schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe.
