1776

The Continental Congress declares American independence.

1860

Russians found Vladivostok near Korean border.

1954

France evacuates southern part of the Hong (Red) River Delta in Indochina as part of the Final Declaration of the Geneva Conference signed by French, Vietnamese, Lao and Cambodian representatives.

1961

Ernest Hemingway, US novelist best known for A Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls, shoots himself, fearing ill health.

1966

France explodes an atomic bomb at a Pacific atoll in first of series of six tests.

1972

Nguyen Thai Binh (born 1948), a Vietnamese student, is shot dead upon his return to Tan Son Nhat Airport, Sai Gon. While studying in the US, he participated in anti-war demonstrations. He also wrote a letter to President Nixon condemning crimes against the Vietnamese people. His name is now used for a scholarship for poor and gifted students in Viet Nam.

1976

Reunification of Viet Nam with Ha Noi as the capital, following the liberation of South Viet Nam. The country had been divided since 1954.

1986

Death of General Hoang Van Thai (born 1915), born as Hoang Van Xiem. He was one of the founders of the Viet Nam Liberation Army, the predecessor of the present day Viet Nam People's Army.

1992

The United States completes a worldwide withdrawal of their tactical nuclear weapons marking the end of an era that began with rapid nuclear build-up in the early 1950s.

1997

A supertanker hits a reef in Tokyo Bay, spilling 13,400 tons of crude oil, making it the worst oil disaster in Japanese history.

2002

US millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett becomes the first person to circumnavigate the world solo in a balloon. — AP/REUTERS