Nothingandall: On this day in History

1111 - Bohemund I dies. Prince of Antioch.
1239 - Vladimir III Rurikovich dies (b. 1187). Grand Prince of Kiev.
1284 - Statute of Rhuddlan incorporated the Principality of Wales into England.
1431 - Eugenius IV becomes Pope.
1455 - King John II of Portugal was born (d. 1495).
1459 - Ausiàs March dies (b. 1397). Catalan poet.
1520 - Matthias Flacius was born (d. 1575). Croatian protestant reformer.
1549 - Henric Spieghel was born. Dutch Renaissance poet (Hertspiegel).
1554 - John Frederick dies (b. 1503). Elector of Saxony.
1575 - Indian Mughal Emperor Akbar defeats Bengali army at the Battle of Tukaroi.
1583 - Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury was born (d. 1648). English diplomat, poet, and philosopher.
1585 - The Olympic Theatre, designed by Andrea Palladio, is inaugurated in Vicenza.
1589 - Gisbertus Voetius was born (d. 1676). Dutch theologian.
1606 - Edmund Waller was born (d. 1687). English poet.
1616 - Matthias de L'Obel dies (b. 1538). French physician and botanist whose Stirpium adversaria nova (1570; written in collaboration with Pierre Pena) was a milestone in modern botany, a collection of notes and data on 1,300 plants that he had observed and gathered in France and England.
1639 - The early settlement of Taunton, Massachusetts was incorporated as a town.
1652 - Thomas Otway was born (d. 1685). English dramatist.
1678 - Madeleine de Verchères was born (d. 1747). French Canadian heroine.
1703 - Robert Hooke dies (b. 18 Jul 1635). English physicist, born Freshwater, Isle of Wight, who discovered the law of elasticity, known as Hooke's law. He was a virtuoso scientist who did research in a remarkable variety of fields ranging from physics and astronomy, to chemistry, biology, and geology, to architecture and naval technology.
1706 - Johann Pachelbel dies (b. 1653). German composer.
1707 - Aurangzeb dies (b. 1618). Mughal emperor.

1717 - Pierre Allix dies (b. 1641). French Protestant pastor.

1744 - Jean Barbeyrac dies. French jurist.

1751 - Pierre Prévost was born (d. 8 Apr 1839). Swiss philosopher and physicist who first showed that all bodies radiate heat, no matter how hot or cold they are. In Sur l'equilibre du feu (1792) he made a significant step forward in understanding the nature of heat. With the Prévost theory of exchanges, he introduced the concept of dynamic equilibrium in which all bodies are both radiating and absorbing heat .

1765 - William Stukeley dies (b. 7 Nov 1687). English antiquary and physician whose studies of the monumental Neolithic Period-Bronze Age stone circles at Stonehenge and Avebury, Wiltshire, led him to elaborate extravagant theories relating them to the Druids (ancient Celtic priest-magicians). These views were widely and enthusiastically accepted in the late 18th century.

1768 - Nicola Porpora dies (b. 1686). Italian composer.

1778 - Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was born (d. 1841). Queen of Hannover.

1791 - The United States Mint is created by the U.S. Congress.

1792 - Luis António Verney dies in Roma (b. 1718). Portuguese Iluminist and writer. (Verdadeiro Método de Estudar).

1792 - Jean-Jacques Willmar was born (d. 1866). Luxembourgish politician.

1792 - Robert Adam dies (b. 1728). Scottish architect.

1793 - William Charles Macready was born (d. 1873). English actor.

1800 - Heinrich Georg Bronn was born (d. 1862). German geologist.

1803 - Colégio Militar is founded in Portugal by Colonel Teixeira Rebello.

1805 - Jonas Furrer was born (d. 1861). Swiss politician and first President of the Swiss Confederation.

1808 - Johann Christian Fabricius dies (b. 7 Jan 1745). Danish entomologist who was one of the great entomologists of the 18th century. After studying with Swedish naturalist Linnaeus, Fabricius travelled widely in Europe to see insect collections and produced many publications describing all the new species that he saw.

1816 - La heroína boliviana Juana Azurduy de Padilla, al frente de 200 hombres, derrota a las tropas españolas.

1820 - The U.S. Congress passes the Missouri Compromise.

1828 - Bulhão Pato was born (d. 1912). Portuguese poet, essayst and memorialist.

1829 - Raimundo António de Bulhão Pato was born in Bilbao (d. 24 Aug 1912). Portuguese writer.

1831 - George Mortimer Pullman was born (d. 19 Oct 1897). American industrialist and inventor of the Pullman sleeping car for use on railroads.

1833 - Ayya Vaikundar arose from the sea as avatar of Narayana at Thiruchendur.

1838 - George William Hill was born (d. 16 Apr 1914). U.S. mathematical astronomer considered by many of his peers to be the greatest master of celestial mechanics of his time.

1839 - Jamshedji Tata was born (d. 1904). Indian industrialist and philanthropist.

1843 - Sir William Chandler Roberts-Austen was born (d. 22 Nov 1902). English metallurgist noted for his research on the physical properties of metals and their alloys. He was knighted in 1899.

1841 - Sir John Murray was born (d. 16 Mar 1914). Scottish naturalist who, as one of its founders, coined the name oceanography He studyied ocean basins, deep-sea deposits, and coral-reef formation.

1845 - Florida is admitted as the 27th U.S. state.

1845 - For the first time the U.S. Congress passes legislation overriding a presidential veto.

1845 - Georg (Ferdinand Ludwig Philip) Cantor was born (d. 6 Jan 1918). Russian-German mathematician who created modern set theory and extended it to give the concept of transfinite numbers,with cardinal and ordinal number classes. Although Cantor's earliest work was concerned with Fourier series, his reputation rests upon his contribution to transfinite set theory.

1847 - Alexander Graham Bell was born in Edinburgh(d.2 Aug 1922). Scotish scientist, inventor of the telephone.

1848 - Adelaide Neilson was born (d. 1880). English actress.

1849 - Minnesota Territory organized as a political division of the United States.

1849 - The United States Department of the Interior is established.

1849 - The U.S. Congress passes the Gold Coinage Act allowing the minting of gold coins.

1850 - Oliver Cowdery dies (b. 1806). American religious leader.

1851 - Alexandros Papadiamantis was born (d. 1911). Greek author.

1857 - Second Opium War: France and the United Kingdom declare war on China.

1857 - Muere Guillermo Brown, almirante de origen irlandés, que dio gloria a la marina argentina.

1860 - John Montgomery Ward was born (d. 1925). American baseball player.

1861 - Alexander II of Russia signs the Emancipation Manifesto, freeing serfs.

1863 - Idaho Territory organized as a political division of the United States.

1863 - Arthur Machen was born (d. 1947). Welsh-born author.

1865 - The U.S. Congress authorizes formation of the Freedmen's Bureau.

1865 - Opening of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, the founding member of the HSBC Group.

1866 - Fred A. Busse was born (d. 1914). Mayor of Chicago.

1871 - Maurice Garin was born (d. 1957). French cyclist.

1873 - Censorship: The U.S. Congress enacts the Comstock Law, making it illegal to send any "obscene, lewd, or lascivious" books through the mail.

1873 - William Green was born (d. 1952). Labor union leader, President of the American Federation of Labor.

1875 - Georges Bizet's opera Carmen premieres at the Opéra Comique of Paris.

1875 - The first ever organized indoor game of ice hockey is played in Montreal, Canada as recorded in The Montreal Gazette.

1877 - Rutherford B. Hayes is privately inaugurated as the 19th President of the United States (his public inauguration coming on March 5).

1878 - Bulgaria regains its independence from Ottoman Empire.

1878 - Marcelo Gama was born in Mostardas (RS) (d. 7 Mar. 1915). Brazilian poet and journalist.

1879 - The United States Geological Survey is created.

1879 - William Kingdon Clifford dies (b. 4 May 1845). British philosopher and mathematician who developed the theory of biquaternions (a generalization of the Irish mathematician Sir William Rowan Hamilton's theory of quaternions) and then linked them with more general associative algebras.

1879 - Elmer McCollum was born (d. 15 Nov 1967). Chemist who discovered vitamins A, B and D.

1880 - Florence Auer was born (d. 1962). American actress.

1880 - Yōsuke Matsuoka was born (d. 1946). Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan.

1883 - Cyril Burt was born (d. 10 Oct 1971). British psychologist known for his development of factor analysis in psychological testing and for his studies of the effect of heredity on intelligence and behaviour.

1885 - The American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT &T) is incorporated in New York State as a subsidiary of American Bell Telephone. (American Bell would later merge with its subsidiary).

1886 - José Isbert was born. Actor.

1886 - Fred A. Busse was born (d. 1914). Mayor of Chicago.

1886 - Tore Ørjasæter was born (d. 1968). Norwegian poet.

1890 - Norman Bethune was born (d. 1939). Canadian doctor and humanitarian.

1891 - The Penalty Spot Kick rule in Soccer is conceived, but does not come into effect until the next season.

1892 - Plínio Pompeu was born (d. 1994). Brazilian engineer and politician.

1893 - Beatrice Wood was born (d. 1998). American artist and ceramicist.

1894 - Ned Williamson dies (b. 1857). American baseball player.

1895 - Matthew Ridgway was born (d. 1993). Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, United States Army Chief of Staff.

1895 - Ragnar Anton Kittil Frisch was born (d. 1973). Norwegian economist, Nobel Prize laureate.

1898 - Emil Artin was born (d. 20 Dec 1962). Austro-German mathematician who worked in algebraic number theory, made a major contribution to field theory, and stated a law of reciprocity which included all previously known laws of reciprocity (1927).

1899 - José Simões Dias dies in Lisbon (b. 5 Feb 1844, in Benfeita, Arganil). Portuguese poet and journalist.

1899 - William P. Sprague dies (b. 1827). American politician from Ohio.

1904 - Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany becomes the first person to make a sound recording of a political document, using Thomas Edison's cylinder.

1904 - Promulgación en España de la ley que establece el descanso dominical.

1905 - Adelino das Palma Carlos was born (d. 1992). Portuguese politician and lawyer. He was Prime-minister of Portugal (17 May 1974 - 18 Jul 1974).

1905 - Tsar Nicholas II of Russia agrees to create an elected assembly (the Duma).

1910 - Rockefeller Foundation: J.D. Rockefeller Jr. announces his retirement from managing his businesses so that he could devote full time to being a philanthropist.

1910 - Inauguración de la línea férrea entre Chile y Argentina, que atraviesa la cordillera de los Andes.

1910 - Consigue el título de piloto de aviación la baronesa de Laroche, primera mujer que murió víctima de un accidente aéreo.

1910 - Kittens Reichert was born (d. 1990). American silent screen child actor.

1911 - Harold J. Stone was born (d. 2005). American actor.

1911 - Hugues Lapointe was born (d. 1982). Canadian politician and Lieutenant governor of Quebec.

1911 - Jean Harlow was born (d. 1937). American actress.

1913 - Establishment of the first football club in Bulgaria - Ticha, now known as PFC "Cherno More"

1915 - NACA, the predecessor of NASA founded.

1915 - Portugal : Assaltos às padarias devido ao aumento do preço do pão.

1917 - Sameera Moussa was born (d. 1952). Egyptian nuclear scientist.

1918 - Germany, Austria and Russia sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk ending Russia's involvement in World War I, and leading to the independence of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

1918 - Arthur Kornberg was born (d. 2000). American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1959 (with Severo Ochoa) for discovering the means by which deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecules are duplicated in the bacterial cell, as well as the means for reconstructing this duplication process in the test tube.

1918 - Fritz Thiedemann was born (d. 2000). German equestrian.

1920 - James Doohan was born (d. 2005). Canadian-born actor.

1920 - Julius Boros was born (d. 1994). American golfer.

1920 - Ronald Searle was born. English illustrator.

1921 - Jorge Borges de Macedo was born (d. 1996). Portuguese historian and teacher.

1922 - Nándor Hidegkuti was born. Hungarian footballer.

1923 - Barney Martin was born. American actor.

1923 - Doc Watson was born. American musician.

1923 - TIME magazine is published for the first time. The first issue was 32 pages and featured a charcoal sketch of Congressman Joseph Gurney Cannon on the cover. It was the United States’ first, modern, news magazine.

1924 - The 1400-year-old Islamic caliphate is abolished when Caliph Abdul Mejid II of the Ottoman Empire is deposed. The last remnant of the old regime gives way to the reformed Turkey of Kemal Atatürk.

1924 - Free State of Fiume is annexed by Kingdom of Italy.

1924 - Na Turquia, o Califa e a sua família foram expulsos e o califado foi abolido.

1924 - Ali Faik Zaghloul was born. Egyptian radio presenter.

1924 - Lilian Velez was born (d. 1948). Filipno actress.

1924 - Tomiichi Murayama was born. Former Prime Minister of Japan.

1926 - James Merrill was born (d. 1995). American, Pulitzer Prize winning, poet.

1926 - Joseph Anthony Ferrario was born (d. 2003). American Catholic prelate.

1926 - Lys Assia was born. Swiss singer, Eurovision Song Contest winner.

1927 - Pierre Aubert was born. Member of the Swiss Federal Council.

1927 - Mikhail Artsybashev dies (b. 1878). Russian writer.

1927 - J.G. Parry-Thomas dies (b. 1884). Welsh motor-racing driver.

1928 - France Križanič was born (d. 2002). Slovene mathematician.

1930 - Heiner Geißler was born. German politician.

1930 - Ion Iliescu was born. President of Romania.

1931 - The United States officially adopts "The Star-Spangled Banner" as its national anthem.

1932 - Eugen d'Albert dies (b. 1864). German composer.

1933 - Mount Rushmore National Memorial is dedicated.

1933 - Alfredo Landa was born. Spanish actor.

1933 - Lee Radziwill was born. American fashion executive.

1933 - Marco Antonio Muñiz was born. Mexican singer (Los Tres Aces).

1937 - Bobby Driscoll was born (d. 1968). American actor.

1937 - Amelia Earhart dies. Aviatrix, apparently disappeared over the Pacific Ocean.

1938 - Glenn Cunningham breaks the world record for the indoor mile run by completing the distance in 4 minutes, 4.4 seconds.

1938 - Oil is discovered in Saudi Arabia.

1939 - Manuel Azaña dimite como Presidente de la II República española.

1939 - In Mumbai, Mohandas Gandhi begins to fast in protest of the autocratic rule in India.

1939 - Estreno en Estados Unidos de la película de John Ford "La Diligencia", modelo en el género de filmes del Oeste.

1939 - Edmund Beecher Wilson dies (b. 19 Oct 1856) American biologist known for his researches in embryology and cytology .

1940 - Five people are killed in an arson attack on the offices of the communist newspaper Norrskensflamman in Luleå, Sweden.

1940 - Germán Castro Caycedo was born. Colombian writer and journalist.

1940 - Owen Spencer-Thomas was born. English broadcaster, journalist and Anglican clergyman

1940 - Perry Ellis was born (d. 1986). American fashion designer.

1941 - Jutta Hoffmann was born. Actress.

1942 - World War II: Ten Japanese warplanes raid the town of Broome, Western Australia killing more than 100 people.

1942 - Mike Pender was born. English singer and guitarist (The Searchers)

1943 - US wins Battle of Bismarck Sea over Japan .

1943 - World War II: In London, 173 people are killed in a crush while trying to enter an air-raid shelter at Bethnal Green tube station.

1943 - George Thompson dies (b. 1877). English cricketer.

1944 - The Order of Nakhimov and Order of Ushakov were instituted in USSR as the highest naval awards.

1945 - World War II: Previously neutral Finland, finally, under increasing pressure from the United States and the USRR, declares war on its former partner, Germany (the Axis powers).

1945 - World War II: The American and Filipino troops take in Manila the Philippines.

1945 - World War II: Hundreds of people die in The Hague after the Royal Air Force mistakenly bombs a civilian area in the city.

1945 - Aprobada el "Acta de Chapultepec", en esta ciudad mexicana, por la que se crea la Liga de Naciones Americanas.

1945 - George Miller was born. Australian film director.

1946 - John Virgo was born. English snooker player.

1947 - Clifton Snider was born. American poet and writer.

1947 - Jennifer Warnes was born. American singer and songwriter.

1947 - Otto Stuppacher was born (d. 2001). Austrian racing driver.

1947 - Miyamoto Teru was born. Japanese author.

1948 - Snowy White was born. British guitarist (Thin Lizzy, Pink Floyd).

1949 - The Tucker Automobile Corporation folds.

1949 - Gloria Hendry was born. American actress.

1949 - Jesse Jefferson was born. American baseball player.

1949 - Jüri Allik was born. Estonian psychologist.

1950 - Tim Kazurinsky was born. American actor and comedian.

1951 - Lindsay Cooper was born. English musician and composer (Henry Cow, News from Babel).

1952 - Se aprueba en Puerto Rico el proyecto de Constitución, por 375.000 votos a favor y 83.000 en contra.

1952 - Dermot Morgan was born (d. 1998). Irish actor and comedian.

1953 - A Canadian Pacific Airlines De Havilland Comet crashes in Karachi, Pakistan killing 11.

1953 - A Canadian Pacific Comet Jet crashes in Karachi, Pakistan killing 11.

1953 - Robyn Hitchcock was born. British musician.

1953 - Zico was born. Brazilian footballer.

1953 - James J. Jeffries dies (b. 1875). American heavyweight boxer.

1954 - Édouard Lock was born. Canadian dance choreographer (La La La Human Steps).

1955 - Elvis Presley appears on television for the first time.

1955 - Andy Breckman was born. American comedian and radio personality.

1956 - Zbigniew Boniek was born. Polish footballer.

1957 - In Frankfurt, Germany, Corry Brokken wins the second Eurovision Song Contest for the Netherlands singing "Net als toen" (Like it used to be).

1958 - Nuri as-Said becomes the prime minister of Iraq for the 14th time.

1958 - Founder of Jaguars Motors retires. Sir William Lyons, founder of Jaguar Motors, retires as Chairman of Jaguar Cars Ltd .

1958 - Marc Silvestri was born. American comic book artist and publisher (Top Cow Productions)

1958 - Miranda Richardson was born. British actress.

1959 - The San Francisco Giants officially name their new stadium Candlestick Park.

1959 - Ira Glass was born. American radio host.

1959 - Lou Costello dies (b. 1906). American actor and comedian.

1960 - Colin Wells was born. English cricketer.

1960 - Neal Heaton was born. American baseball player.

1961 - Hassan II becomes King of Morocco.

1961 - Fatima Whitbread was born. English javelin thrower.

1961 - Knut Nærum was born. Norwegian comedian.

1961 - Mary Page Keller was born. American actress.

1961 - Perry McCarthy was born. English racing driver.

1961 - Paul Wittgenstein dies (b. 1887). Austrian-born pianist.

1962 - Glen E. Friedman was born. American photographer and artist.

1962 - Herschel Walker was born. American football player.

1962 - Jackie Joyner-Kersee was born. American athlete.

1963 - Senegal adopts constitution.

1963 - Sophia Aliberti was born. Greek actress and TV presenter.

1964 - Duncan Phillips was born. Australian drummer (Newsboys).

1964 - Laura Harring was born. Mexican-born American actress.

1964 - Raúl Alcalá was born. Mexican cyclist.

1965 - US jets bomb Ho Chi Minh Trail. More than 30 US Air Force jets strike targets along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos. Since such raids had become common knowledge and were being reported in the American media, the US State Department felt compelled to announce that these controversial missions were authorized by the powers granted to President Johnson in the August 1964 Tonkin Gulf Resolution.

1966 - A British Overseas Airways Boeing 707 flew into a mountain wave after the captain decided to give the passengers a close-up view of Mt. Fuji. All 124 people aboard were killed.

1966 - Fernando Colunga was born. Mexican actor.

1966 - Timo Tolkki was born. Finnish musician (Stratovarius).

1966 - Tone-Loc was born. American musician.

1966 - William Frawley dies (b. 1887). American actor.

1966 - Alice Pearce dies (b. 1917). American actress.

1966 - Maxfield Parrish dies (b. 1870). Artist.

1968 - Greece, Portugal & Spain's embassies bombed in the Hague.

1968 - Brian Leetch was born. American ice hockey player.

1968 - José Mejías (Pepe Bienvenida) dies. Bullfighter.

1969 - Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 9 to test the lunar module.

1969 - In a Los Angeles, California court, Sirhan Sirhan admits that he killed presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy.

1969 - Simon Whitlock was born. Australian darts player.

1970 - Inzamam-ul-Haq was born. Pakistani cricketer.

1970 - Julie Bowen was born. American actress.

1971 - Beginning of Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 and India's official entry to the Bangladesh Liberation War in support of Mukti Bahini.

1971 - Tyler Florence was born. Chef, food network personality, & cookbook author.

1971 - Antonio Silva dies. Portuguese actor (b. 15 Aug 1886) / Morre, em Lisboa, o grande actor português António Silva (n. 15 Ago 1886).

1972 - Mohawk Airlines Flight 405 crashes as a result of a control malfunction and insufficient emergency procedure training.

1972 - The space probe Pioneer X is launched by NASA.

1972 - Darren Anderton was born. English footballer.

1973 - La Unidad Popular gana las elecciones legislativas en Chile / A Unidade Popular vence as eleições no Chile, tendo como presidente Salvador Allende.

1973 - Presidents Rule introduced in the Indian state of Orissa

1973 - Matthew Marsden was born. English actor and singer.

1973 - Romāns Vainšteins was born. Latvian cyclist

1973 - Victoria Zdrok was born in Kiev. Ukrainian model, playmate (Oct. 1994).

1974 - A Turkish DC-10 crashes at Ermenonville near Paris, killing all 346 aboard.

1974 - Roman Catholic and Lutheran officials reach an agreement for eventual reconciliation into one communion, marking the first agreement between the two churches since the Reformation.

1974 - George Foreman KOs Ken Norton.

1974 - David Faustino was born. American actor.

1974 - Paula Malai Ali was born. Malaysian-Bruneian TV presenter and actress.

1975 - David Blanco was born. Spanish cyclist.

1976 - Mozambique closes border with Rhodesia.

1976 - Fleetwood Mac records Rumours, which will be a blockbuster album in 1977.

1976 - 5 workers are killed by the police in a demonstration in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain.

1976 - Fraser Gehrig was born. Australian rules footballer.

1977 - Ronan Keating was born. Irish singer.

1977 - Stéphane Robidas was born. Canadian ice hockey player.

1978 - Charles Chaplin's remains are stolen from Cosier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland but are recovered 11 weeks later near Lake Geneva.

1978 - Matt Diaz was born. American baseball player.

1978 - Seomoon Tak was born. Korean singer.

1979 - Alex Zane was born. English comedian

1979 - Patrick Renna was born. American actor.

1980 - The USS Nautilus is decommissioned and stricken.

1980 - Mason Unck was born. American football player.

1981 - Dusty Dvoracek was born. American football player.

1981 - Emmanuel Pappoe was born. Ghanaian footballer.

1981 - Julius Malema was born. South African politician.

1981 - Kim Yoo-Jin (Eugene) was born. South Korean singer and actress.

1981 - Lil' Flip was born. American rapper.

1981 - Sung Yu Ri was born. South Korean singer and actress.

1982 - Colton Orr was born. Canadian ice hockey player.

1982 - Jessica (Claire) Biel was born in Ely, Minnesota. American actress .

1982 - Georges Perec dies (b. 1936). French novelist and essayist.

1983 - Ashley Hansen was born. Australian Rules footballer.

1983 - Kelly Key was born. Brazilian singer.

1983 - Hergé dies (b. 1907). Belgian cartoonist (Tintin).

1983 - Arthur Koestler dies (b. 1905). Austrian writer.

1984 - Un terremoto ocasiona el desplome del cerro Murmutani, en el valle de Cochabamba (Bolivia).

1984 - Alexander Semin was born. Russian ice hockey player.

1985 - Arthur Scargill declares that the National Union of Mineworkers national executive voted to end the longest-running industrial dispute in Great Britain without any peace deal over pit closures.

1985 - Censorship: Women Against Pornography award their "Pig Award" to Huggies Diapers, claiming that the television ads had "crossed the line between eye-catching and porn."

1985 - Sam Morrow was born. Northern Irish footballer.

1986 - Stacie Orrico was born. American singer.

1987 - Danny Kaye dies (b. 1913). American actor, singer and comedian.

1987 - Marchioness Catherine Allen du Prada was born. Famous Puerto Rican Salsa Queen.

1988 - Sewall Wright dies (b. 21 Dec 1889). American biologist geneticist, one of the founders of modern theoretical population genetics.

1989 - A selecção portuguesa de Futebol sagra-se campeã mundial de juniores, sob a direcção de Carlos Queirós.

1989 - A nave espacial Discovery foi lançada no espaço.

1989 - Erica Morningstar was born. Canadian swimmer, and record holder.

1990 - Gérard Blitz dies (b. 1912). Belgian waterpoloist and entrepreneur.

1991 - An amateur video captures the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers.

1991 - In two concurring referendums: 74 % of the population of Latvia vote for independence from the Soviet Union, in Estonia - 83 %.

1991 - United Airlines Flight 585 crashes on approach into Colorado Springs, Colorado, killing 25.

1991 - El Ejército Popular de Liberación de Colombia entrega las armas tras 23 años de lucha armada.

1991 - Latvia and Estonia vote to become independent of the USSR .

1991 - Miguel Trovoada installed as president of São Tomé e Príncipe.

1991 - Arthur Murray dies (b. 1895). American dancer and dance instructor.

1991 - William Penney dies (b. 24 Jun 1909). (Baron Penney of East Hendred) British nuclear physicist who led Britain's development of the atomic bomb.

1992 - Gas explodes in coal mine at Zonguldak Turkey, 100s die.

1992 - The nation of Bosnia was established.

1992 - Madison Cross was born. American singer and actress.

1993 - Albert Bruce Sabin dies (b. 26 Aug 1906). Polish-American physician and microbiologist best known for developing the first oral polio vaccine (1955), which was administered to millions of children in Europe, Africa, and the Americas beginning in the late 1950s.

1993 - Carlos Marcello dies (b. 1910). Tunisian-born gangster.

1993 - Carlos Montoya dies (b. 1903). Flamenco guitarist.

1993 - Albert Sabin dies (b. 1906). Polish-born medical researcher.

1994 - La Santa Sede y Jordania establecen relaciones diplomáticas.

1995 - In Somalia, the United Nations peacekeeping mission ends.

1995 - Howard W. Hunter dies (b. 1907). President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

1996 - España: el Partido Popular encabezado por José Maria Aznar López obtiene mayoría relativa en las elecciones generales.

1996 - Meyer Schapiro dies at 91. Art historian.

1996 - Marguerite Duras dies (b. 1914). French writer.

1996 - John Cardinal Krol dies (b. 1910). American Catholic clergyman.

1997 - The tallest free-standing structure in the Southern Hemisphere, Sky Tower in downtown Auckland, New Zealand, opens after two-and-a-half years of construction.

1997 - Stanislav Shatalin dies. Russian economist (500 Days).

1998 - Bill Gates testifies at Senate Judiciary Committee.

1998 - Fred Friendly dies (b. 1915). American broadcast executive.

1999 - LaGrand case: The State of Arizona executes Walter LaGrand, a German despite German legal action in the International Court of Justice.

1999 - Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones begin their successful attempt to circumnavigate the world in a hot air balloon without stopping.

1999 - Walter LaGrand, German national, executed by the State of Arizona.

1999 - Gerhard Herzberg dies (b. 25 Dec 1904). German-Canadian physicist and winner of the 1971 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work in determining the electronic structure and geometry of molecules, especially free radicals: groups of atoms that contain odd numbers of electrons .

2000 - Toni Ortelli dies (b. 1904). Italian composer and alpinist.

2001 - A U.S. Air Force Materials Command C-23 Sherpa transport crashes during stormy weather in the U.S. state of Georgia, killing 21.

2001 - Louis Edmonds dies (b. 1923). American actor.

2002 - Citizens of Switzerland narrowly vote in favour of their country becoming a member of the United Nations.

2002 - Harlan Howard dies (b. 1927). American musician.

2003 - Goffredo Petrassi dies (b. 1904). Italian composer.

2003 - Horst Buchholz dies (b. 1933). German actor.

2003 - Luis Marden dies (b. 1913). American photojournalist.

2003 - Peter Smithson dies (b. 1923). English architect.

2004 - Belgian brewer Interbrew and Brazilian rival AmBev agreed to merge in a $11.2 billion deal that formed InBev, the world's largest brewer.

2004 - Alec Zino dies (b. 9 Feb 1916). Portuguese ornithologist and conservationist who gave his name to Zino's petrel, Europe's rarest breeding bird. Only perhaps 45 mating pairs of the Zino's petrel (Pterodroma madeira) remain on the island of Madeira, south-west of Portugal, where this small black and white seabird breeds.

2004 - In Yemen security forces arrested Abdul Raouf Naseeb, a leading al-Qaida member, along with other militants in the southern mountains.

2004 - Cecily Adams dies (b. 1958). American actress and casting director.

2005 - Mayorthorpe Massacre: Four members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are gunned down during a drug bust near Mayorthorpe, Alberta in the worst attack on the RCMP since 1885 and the North-West Rebellion.

2005 - Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly an airplane around the world solo without any stops without refuelling - a journey of 40,234 km/25,000 mi completed in 67 hours and 2 minutes.

2005 - The freighter M/V Karen Danielsen, crashes into part of the Great Belt Bridge of Denmark, 800 m from Funen. All traffic across the bridge stops, effectively separating Denmark in two.

2005 - Max M. Fisher dies (b. 1928). American philanthropist.

2005 - Rinus Michels dies (b. 1928). Dutch football coach.

2006 - Ivor Cutler dies (b. 1923). Scottish poet.

2006 - William Herskovic dies (b. 1914). Holocaust hero and philanthropist.

2007 - Osvaldo Cavandoli was born. Italian cartoonist, creator of La Linea.

2008 - Giuseppe Di Stefano was born. Italian operatic tenor.

2009 – The Sri Lankan cricket team is attacked by terrorists while on their way to the Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore for a Test match against Pakistan.

2009 – The building of the Historisches Archiv der Stadt Köln (Historical Archives) in Cologne, Germany, collapses.

Hinamatsuri - Japanese celebration day for girls.

Bulgaria - Liberation Day.

Australia - Labour Day.