1608

Quebec, Canada is founded by French explorer Samuel de Champlain.

1819

The first savings bank in America, the Bank for Savings in the City of New York, opens for business.

1883

Franz Kafka (died 1924), novelist, is born in Prague. He wrote enigmatic stories in which individuals were constantly threatened by a nightmarishly impersonal world. Most of his work, including The Trial (1925) and The Castle (1926), was published posthumously.

1917

Birth of Vietnamese journalist and photographer Nguyen Ba Khoan (died 1993). In 1939, he cycled alone through Indochina, taking pictures of the entire region. His unique historical photos include Hanoians Demonstrating in Front of the Municipal Theatre on the Eve of the August Revolution in 1945 and The Last French Soldiers Leaving Ha Noi via the Long Bien Bridge. Khoan was conferred the Ho Chi Minh Award.

1962

Algeria becomes independent after 132 years of French rule.

1972

Pakistan and India sign a peace treaty, ending hostilities triggered by the civil war in Bangladesh, formerly known as East Pakistan; troops withdraw from border regions.

1987

In France, Klaus Barbie, the Nazi "butcher of Lyon", is jailed for life for wartime crimes against humanity.

1993

Military leader General Raoul Cedras signs a UN plan to restore democracy to Haiti.

1996

British Prime Minister John Major announces that the historic Stone of Scone, the ancient symbol of Scottish kings, is to be removed from London's Westminster Abbey after 700 years, and returned to Scotland.

2005

Saudi anti-terror forces kill al-Qaeda's top leader in the kingdom in a dawn gun battle. But despite the Moroccan terrorist Younis Mohammed Ibrahim al-Hayari's death, the number of extremists has grown despite a two-year crackdown on militants.

2008

Quebec City, Canada, celebrates its 400th birthday.

2010

A tanker truck hauling fuel on a rural eastern Congo highway overturns, gushing oil and exploding in a massive fireball that kills about 220 bystanders, including many who had been watching the World Cup in flimsy roadside shacks — AP/REUTERS