On this day in conspiracies

Altantuya, who had traveled to Malaysia seeking to confront Razak Baginda, is taken from outside his Kuala Lumpur home to scrubland near Puncak Alam, outside Shah Alam. She is shot and her body is destroyed with military-grade explosives, widely reported as C4. Her remains are identified only through DNA.

Bhutto returns to Pakistan from years of self-imposed exile to contest the coming election. A suicide bombing targets her homecoming procession in Karachi that night, killing some 140 people; she survives. She publicly warns that she faces threats and complains that her security is inadequate.

Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden announces that investigators believe the incident was a hoax, staged as a publicity stunt, and says the parents will face charges. He describes the family's cooperation as having deteriorated once questions turned to the staging.

The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, with the World Economic Forum and the Gates Foundation, runs Event 201, a tabletop exercise simulating a fictional coronavirus pandemic to test global response. Held weeks before the real SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, its timing is later recast by believers as foreknowledge or planning.