1563 | The Peace of Amboise ends the First War of Religion in France, with the Huguenots granted limited tolerance to exercise their religion. |
1821 | Birth of Richard Burton, English explorer who penetrated the holy cities of Mecca and Medina disguised as a pilgrim. He also translated the Arabian Nights. |
1920 | The United States refuses to ratify the Versailles Treaty, and so join the League of Nations, for fear of being drawn into a war if another member country was invaded. |
1932 | Sydney Harbour Bridge is officially opened by New South Wales Premier Jack Lang. |
1950 | 500,000 Saigonese demonstrate at the port of Sai Gon, now Nha Rong Harbour, protesting the visit of three US warships, forcing them to leave the same day. |
1950 | Death of Edgar Rice Burroughs, American novelist, famed for the Tarzan stories. |
1973 | The first consultative conference between the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Viet Nam (PRG) and the Sai Gon administration opens in France. At the conference, the PRG asks Sai Gon to ensure democratic rights in South Viet Nam. |
1975 | Vietnamese liberation armed forces overrun Sai Gon-held bases in Quang Tri Province. |
1993 | Georgia shoots down a Russian warplane over the separatist Abkhazia region, killing its pilot and heightening tensions between the two countries. |
1995 | Finnish voters throw out the centre-right coalition government and give the opposition Social Democratic Party its biggest election victory since World War II. |
1996 | A discotheque fire kills at least 150 people in Manila, Philippines. |
1998 | Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic agrees to international demands to pull back special police from the troubled province of Kosovo. |
2003 | The US launches an attack against Iraq after a deadline for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to go into exile expires. |
2005 | Tens of thousands of anti-war protesters demonstrate across Europe to mark the second anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, with 45,000 marching from London's Hyde Park past the American Embassy. |
2008 | Belgium's political parties announce a deal to form a new national government, ending a nine-month political stalemate that had threatened to split the country along linguistic lines. — AP/REUTERS/VNS |