1637

Dutch expel Portuguese from Gold Coast in Africa.

1824

Turkey captures island of Psara from Greeks.

1830

France's King Charles X abdicates after July Revolution against his conservative policies.

1928

Italy signs 20-year treaty of friendship with Ethiopia.

1934

Germany's President Paul von Hindenburg dies at age 87, and Adolf Hitler assumes the title of Der Fuehrer.

1935

Britain passes the Government of India Act, separating Myanmar and Aden from India and granting self-government with a central legislature in New Delhi.

1943

A US Navy patrol torpedo boat, PT-109, commanded by Lt. John F Kennedy, sinks after being hit by a Japanese destroyer off the Solomon Islands. Kennedy is credited with saving members of the crew.

1951

In an effort to slow down the influx of illegal immigrants to the United States, a Mexican-US migrant labour treaty is signed, bringing 300,000 Mexicans to work on US harvests.

1996

The first 1,700 Rwandan refugees begin returning home, despite fear of reprisals from the new Tutsi government.

1999

In India, 226 people die when two trains crash head-on in the predawn darkness near Gaisal, about 500km north of Calcutta.

2009

Nigerian government forces hunt for surviving members of a radical Islamist sect after heavy fighting leaves at least 700 people dead and buildings and cars scorched. — AP/REUTERS