October 7, 1985
The cruise ship Achille Lauro is hijacked by members of the Palestinian Liberation Front off the coast of Egypt. The ship had departed from Genoa, Italy, on Oct. 3 for an 11-day cruise with stops in Naples, Alexandria, Port Said, Egypt, and Ashdod, Israel, with 748 passengers on board. The hijackers intend to carry out an attack against Israeli soldiers when the ship stops in Ashdod.
Several hundred passengers left the Achille Lauro that morning for a tour of the Egyptian pyramids and plan to meet the ship again at Port Said. The remaining passengers are collected on deck, and one elderly wheelchair- bound American Jewish passenger, Leon Klinghoffer, is fatally shot by the terrorists. Eventually, with the help of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the hijackers agree to surrender, and on Oct. 10 they turn themselves in at Port Said.
In 1991, The Death of Klinghoffer, a controversial American opera based on the hijacking and murder, opens in New York and Brussels. It is staged only a few times since.