| 1664 |
The Dutch surrender New Amsterdam to the British, who rename it New York. |
| 1900 |
Galveston, Texas, is struck by a hurricane that kills about 6,000 people. |
| 1926 |
Germany is admitted to League of Nations. The league was formed to foster international co-operation and world peace. |
| 1939 |
US President Franklin D Roosevelt declares a "limited national emergency" due to the outbreak of war in Europe. |
| 1941 |
The Germans begin an 872-day siege of Leningrad, now St Petersburg, Russia. |
| 1943 |
Allied Commander Dwight D Eisenhower announces Italy's unconditional surrender in World War II. The Germans take over Rome and northern Italy. |
| 1951 |
A peace treaty with Japan is signed by 48 other nations in San Francisco. |
| 1952 |
American writer, Ernest Hemingway's novel The Old Man and the Sea is published. |
| 1974 |
US President Gerald Ford grants an unconditional pardon to former President Richard Nixon. |
| 1979 |
Three armed Lebanese surrender to Iranian authorities in Tehran after hijacking an Italian airliner the day before. The hijackers released 175 passengers in Rome and the remaining 35 in Teheran. |
| 1991 |
Macedonians vote to become the third of six Yugoslav republics to choose independence. |
| 1994 |
British, French and American troops pull out of Berlin, leaving the city without foreign soldiers for the first time since World War II. |
| 1996 |
Okinawa residents vote more than 10-to-1 in favour of a referendum to reduce US military bases on the Japanese island. |
| 2008 |
A landslide at an illegal mining operation in northern China kills at least 260 people. |
| 2010 |
The bodies of 10 slain volunteers on a medical team, some of whom had devoted whole decades of their lives to helping the Afghan people through war and deprivation, are flown back to Kabul by helicopter, as friends and family bitterly reject. Taliban claims the group - six Americans, two Afghans, a German and a Briton - had tried to convert Afghans to Christianity. — AP |