1728

Birth of British explorer and one of the great navigators in history, James Cook. He helped map New Zealand, Australia and parts of the Pacific, including the Hawaiian Islands.

1782

Birth of Italian composer and virtuoso violinist Niccolo Paganini whose works reflected his extraordinary technique.

1811

Birth of US inventor and manufacturer Isaac Singer. He developed the first practical sewing machine.

1858

Birth of Theodore Roosevelt, the US president, writer, explorer and soldier. As vice-president, he took over the presidency when William McKinley was assassinated in 1901 and served until 1909.

1868

Ngyen Trung Truc (born 1837), the leader of a peasant movement in Viet Nam's Long An Province in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta, is executed by the French. Responding to the royalist Can Vuong (Save the King) movement, he led the peasants in an armed uprising against French occupation and set up a base on Phu Quoc Island.

1920

The Vietnamese language Cochinchina Economics newspaper makes its debut in Sai Gon.

1922

The Italian Government resigns under increasing pressure from the fascist movement of Benito Mussolini.

1924

The French governor in Indochina decrees the establishment of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de l'Indochine (Indochinese Fine Arts College).

1971

The government of Congo announces that the country will change its name to the Republic of Zaire.

1977

US President Jimmy Carter rules out any US embargo on trade with South Africa or any ban on US investment in that nation to protest its racial policies.

2002

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wins Brazil's presidential runoff election, becoming the nation's first leftist and working-class president.

2003

Five co-ordinated suicide bombing attacks kill at least 35 people in Baghdad, and wounded more than 200 others.

2007

Astronauts add a new room to the international space station, attaching a bus-sized living compartment named Harmony with the help of spacewalkers working outside and robot arm operators working inside. — AP/REUTERS/VNS