1701: Yale University is founded in New Haven, Connecticut.
1776: A group of Spanish missionaries founds a town in the western United States, today known as San Francisco.
1813: Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi is born.
1902: In France, two thirds of all miners go on strike.
1923: On the grounds of a ban on alcoholic drinks, 5,000 shops are closed in Constantinople, most of them Greek-owned.
1931: In Greece, civil servants’ salaries are cut by 4% for lower grades and 6% for higher grades.
1932: Joseph Stalin removes Grigory Zinoviev and Lev Kamenev, who shared power with him after Lenin’s death, and exiles them to Siberia.
1940: John Lennon, member of the legendary Beatles, is born.
1944: The Nazis mercilessly bomb Athens, three days before abandoning the city.
1962: Uganda declares its independence after 70 years of British rule.
1963: More than 2,000 people die when the Vajont dam breaks, flooding Longarone and three other villages in north-eastern Italy.
1965: The Beatles’ song “Yesterday” reaches No 1 on the US charts, where it will remain for four weeks.
1966: British Prime Minister David Cameron is born.
1967: Argentine revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara dies. He was killed in the Bolivian jungle.
1975: The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to Russian physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov, who helped create the USSR’s first hydrogen bomb. He was honoured for his struggle for human rights.
1989: The official news agency of the Soviet Union reports that a UFO has landed in Voronezh.
1991: German Chancellor Helmut Kohl appeals for respect and tolerance towards foreigners.
1993: In Russia, the official death toll from the bloody events in Moscow, during the army’s operation to seize Parliament, stands at 142, most of them civilians.
2002: The competent committee announces that Cyprus, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Malta and Hungary meet the Copenhagen criteria for accession to the European Union. Bulgaria and Romania are referred to 2007. No date is set for the start of accession negotiations with Turkey.
2012: In Pakistan, the Taliban attempt to assassinate schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai as she returns home from school.
