1292

Birth of Vietnamese teacher and poet Chu Van An (died 1370). He was one of the first to use the demotic nom script in place of the then academic Han Chinese ideoghraphy.

1536

William Tyndale, who translated the first English Bible, is executed for heresy in Vilvoorde, the Netherlands.

1683

Thirteen families from Krefeld, Germany, arrive in present-day Philadelphia to begin Germantown, one of America's oldest settlements.

1908

Turkey grants concession to Germany to build a railroad to Ankara.

1927

In the United States, the era of talking pictures arrives with the opening of "The Jazz Singer", starring Al Jolson, a movie which features both silent and sound-synchronised scenes.

1958

US nuclear submarine Seawolf surfaces off New England's coast after establishing a world record by remaining submerged for two months.

1972

Train carrying religious pilgrims derails and catches fire near Saltillo, Mexico, killing at least 208 people.

1976

Coup in Thailand results in military takeover.

1991

An Indonesian air force plane crashes into a government building in Jakarta, killing 102 people and injuring more than 5,000.

1992

The UN Security Council unanimously votes to create a war-crimes commission for Bosnia-Herzegovina.

1999

Overwhelmed by rising waters on the Niger River, officials open the floodgates of two major dams, submerging 400 villages and leaving more than 300,000 homeless. Some 500 people are believed drowned.

2000

An official inquiry into the infection of more than 200 Irish hemophiliacs with HIV and hepatitis C confirms that the government's Blood Transfusion Service Board knowingly put them at risk in the early 1980s by selling infected blood products to hospitals. — AP/VNS