1526

In the Turkish-Hungarian War, 30,000 Hungarians under King Lewis and Tomore are defeated by over 100,000 Turks under Suleiman at the Battle of Mohacs, beginning 150 years of Turkish occupation.

1842

The Treaty of Nanking is signed between the British and Chinese, ending the first Opium War. The treaty confirmed the ceding of Hong Kong Island to Britain.

1885

The first motorcycle is patented, built by Gottlied Daimler in Germany.

1942

Ho Chi Minh is arrested by the Chinese Chiang Kai-shek government on his way from Viet Nam's northern Cao Bang Province to Suyong, Guangxi Province. He was detained for 13 months in over 30 prisons in Guangxi. It was during that period that he wrote the famous Nhat Ky Trong Tu (Prison Diary).

1949

The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb.

1975

Inauguration of the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Ha Noi.

1988

Death of Luu Quang Vu (born 1948), Vietnamese poet and playwright. He is best known for the work Toi va Chung Ta (Me and Us), Loi The Thu Chin (The Ninth Oath) and Hon Truong Ba Da Hang Thit (Truong Ba's Soul in the Butcher's Body). Xuan Quynh (born 1942), Vietnamese poet and reporter, dies in the same accident with her husband Luu Quang Vu.

1994

Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation sign an early empowerment accord under which Israel agrees to transfer administrative powers throughout the West Bank to the Palestinian National Authority.

1999

East Timorese vote in a historic referendum on independence from Indonesia. — AP/REUTERS