1942    World War II: The Japanese Navy attacks Colombo in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Royal Navy cruisers {{HMS|Cornwall|56|6}} and {{HMS|Dorsetshire|40|6}} are sunk southwest of the island.

1983    Black July: 37 Tamil political prisoners at the Welikada high security prison in Colombo are massacred by the fellow Sinhalese prisoners.

1983    Black July: 18 Tamil political prisoners at the Welikada high security prison in Colombo are massacred by Sinhalese prisoners, the second such massacre in two days.

1986    Twenty-one people are killed and forty-one are injured after a bomb explodes in an airliner (Flight UL512) at Colombo airport in Sri Lanka.

1987    The Tamil Tigers are blamed for a car bomb that explodes in the Sri Lankan city of Colombo, killing 106 people.

1996    An explosives-filled truck rams into the gates of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in Colombo, Sri Lanka killing at least 86 and injuring 1,400.

2006    Sri Lankan Tamil Parliamentarian Nadarajah Raviraj is assassinated in Colombo.