1814

Birth of Samuel Colt (died 1862), US inventor of the revolver that bears his name.

1837

English civil engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Great Western steamship is launched from Bristol; on this day in 1843 his Great Britain, the first Atlantic liner built of iron, is launched.

1843

A new form of female dress, the Bloomers, is first introduced by their inventor Amelia Jenks Bloomer.

1877

The first Wimbledon tennis tournament takes place; it is won by Spencer Gore.

1883

Death of Tu Duc (born 1829), whose real name is Hong Nham, the fourth king of the Nguyen dynasty (1847-83).

1885

The French launch large-scale mopping-up operations from Central to North Viet Nam in pursuit of King Ham Nghi, the leader of the royalist Can Vuong movement in Viet Nam in the early days of the French conquest, and his right-hand man, General Ton That Thuyet.

1888

French President Sadi Carnot gives city status to Ha Noi and Hai Phong.

1900

The Paris Metro underground system is opened.

1941

Winston Churchill introduces his V for Victory campaign which rapidly spreads through Europe. The BBC took the first four notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which matched the dot-dot-dot-dash Morse code for the letter V, and played it before news bulletins.

1949

Laos becomes an independent state within the French Union.

1997

The IRA announces ceasefire in Northern Ireland.

2000

An international measure is adopted to block rebel groups from trading "conflict diamonds" to fund Africa's most vicious civil wars.

2002

An inquiry into the murders committed by British doctor Harold Shipman, concludes that he killed 215 of his patients, mainly elderly women, between 1975 and 1998. He was convicted in 2000 for murder of 15 of his patients. — AP/REUTERS