2007 - Pat Walsh, New Zealand rugby union footballer (b. 1936)
Events
800 - Charlemagne arrives at Rome to investigate the alleged crimes of Pope Leo III.
1227 - Polish Prince Leszek I the White is assassinated at an assembly of Piast dukes at Gàsawa.
1248 - Conquest of Seville by the Christian troops under King Ferdinand III of Castile.
1499 - Pretender to the throne Perkin Warbeck is hanged for reportedly attempting to escape from the Tower of London. He had invaded England in 1497, claiming to be the lost son of King Edward IV of England.
1531 - The Second war of Kappel results in the dissolution of the Protestant alliance in Switzerland.
1644 - Areopagitica, a pamphlet decrying censorship, and written by John Milton is published.
1654 - French mathematician, scientist, and religious philosopher Blaise Pascal experiences an intense, mystical vision that marks him for life.
1844 - Independence of the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein from Denmark.
1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Chattanooga begins
1867 - The Manchester Martyrs were hanged in Manchester, England for rescuing two Irish men from jail.
1869 - In Dumbarton, Scotland, the clipper Cutty Sark is launched
1876 - Corrupt Tammany Hall leader William Marcy Tweed (better known as Boss Tweed) is delivered to authorities in New York City after being captured in Spain.
1889 - The first jukebox goes into operation at the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco.
1934 - An Anglo-Ethiopian boundary commission in the Ogaden discovers an Italian garrison at Walwal, which lay well within Ethiopian territory. This leads to the Abyssinia Crisis.
1943 - World War II: The Deutsche Opernhaus on Bismarckstraße in the Berlin neighborhood of Charlottenburg is destroyed. It will eventually be rebuilt in 1961 and be called the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
1943 - World War II: Tarawa and Makin atolls fall to American forces.
1946 - The Workers Party of South Korea is founded.
1954 - For the first time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above the peak it reached just before the 1929 crash.
1955 - The Cocos Islands are transferred from the control of the United Kingdom to Australia.
1959 - General Charles de Gaulle, President of France, declares in a speech in Strasbourg his vision for a "Europe, from the Atlantic to the Urals."
1971 - The representatives of the People's Republic of China first attended the United Nations, including the United Nations Security Council, as China's representatives (See China and the United Nations).
1976 - Apneist Jacques Mayol is the first man to reach a depth of 100 m undersea without breathing equipment.
1979 - In Dublin, Ireland, Irish Republican Army member Thomas McMahon is sentenced to life in prison for the assassination of Lord Mountbatten.
1980 - A series of earthquakes in southern Italy kills approximately 4,800 people.
1981 - Iran-Contra Affair: Ronald Reagan signs the top secret National Security Decision Directive 17 (NSDD-17), giving the Central Intelligence Agency the authority to recruit and support Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
1985 - Gunmen hijack EgyptAir Flight 648 while en route from Athens to Cairo. When the plane lands in Malta, Egyptian commandos storm the hijacked jetliner, but 60 people die in the raid.
1990 - The first all woman expedition to the south pole (3 Americans, 1 Japanese and 12 Russians), sets off from Antarctica on the 1st leg of a 70 day, 1287 kilometre ski trek.
1993 - Rachel Whiteread wins both the £20,000 Turner Prize award for best British modern artist and the £40,000 K Foundation art award for the worst artist of the year.
1996 - Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 is hijacked, then crashes into the Indian Ocean off the coast of Comoros after running out of fuel, killing 123.
1996 - The Republic of Angola officially joins the World Trade Organization.
1998 - Agreement between Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and his rival, prince Norodom Ranariddh.
2001 - Convention on Cybercrime is signed in Budapest, Hungary.
2003 - Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze resigns following weeks of mass protests over flawed elections.
2003 - A total solar eclipse occurs and was visible from a corridor in the Antarctic region. A partial eclipse was seen from the much broader path of the Moon's penumbra, including the southern tip of South America and most of Australia.
2005 - Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, elected president of Liberia, is the first woman to lead an African country.
2007 - MS Explorer, a cruise liner carrying 154 people, sank in the Antarctic Ocean south of Argentina after hitting an iceberg near the South Shetland Islands.
2009 - In the Philippines, at least 57 are abducted and killed in an election-related massacre in the province of Maguindanao. This appears to be the deadliest attack on journalists in recent history.
2010 - North Korea shells Yeonpyeong Island, prompting a military response by South Korea. The incident caused an escalation of tension on the Korean Peninsula and prompted widespread international condemnation. The United Nations declared it to be one of the most serious incidents since the end of the Korean War.
