1784

Death of Le Quy Don (born 1726), Vietnamese scholar, encyclopedist and statesman. His works, which encompass history, geography, economics, philosophy and ethics, constitute an extremely valuable source of documentation on ancient Viet Nam. They include the historical Dai Viet Thong Su (General History of Dai Viet), and Phu Bien Tap Luc (Monographa on Thuan Hoa and Quang Nam provinces) and a number of other literary works.

1815

Napoleon Bonaparte issues a liberal constitution in France.

1882

Death of Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian leader and patriot. He became a central figure in the fight for the independence of Italy, leading his guerrilla army in the capture of Naples (1860).

1946

In a referendum, Italians choose a republic over the Savoy monarchy.

1949

Transjordan is renamed the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

1966

The Southeast Asian nations of Indonesia and Malaysia agree to end five years of hostilities.

1997

Timothy J McVeigh, an angry US Army veteran, is convicted of the Oklahoma City bombing that took 168 lives in 1995. He is later sentenced to death.

1999

Japanese women finally win the right to use the birth control pill, more than three decades after it first appeared in the West.

2000

South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission grants amnesty to apartheid death squad commander Eugene de Kock and other former police in the killings of 14 people.

2004

Former rebel commanders capture a strategic town in eastern Congo, setting off a crisis that threatens the Central African country's fragile transitional government and a peace agreement that ended five years of civil war.

2007

US authorities break up a suspected Muslim terrorist cell planning an attack to destroy John F Kennedy Airport in New York, kill thousands of people and trigger an economic catastrophe by blowing up a jet fuel artery that runs through populous neighbourhoods.

2008

Nepal's deposed king agrees to peacefully leave the royal palace in Katmandu and live as a common citizen after the Himalayan nation declared itself a republic.

2010

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects international criticism of a deadly raid against a flotilla carrying aid to Gaza earlier this week, saying the blockade of the Palestinian territory is needed to prevent missile attacks against Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. — AP/REUTERS