1803: Birth of Hector Berlioz, considered a leading figure and early architect of 19th-century musical Romanticism.
1844: Dr John Riggs uses anaesthesia for the first time during a tooth extraction on fellow dentist Horace Wells, applying nitrous oxide.
1894: The first international automobile exhibition opens in Paris with nine exhibitors.
1911: Britain, France and Russia agree to restrict whaling, aiming to prevent the species’ extinction.
1911: Birth of Naguib Mahfouz, Egyptian writer and the first Arab author to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature (1988).
1918: Birth of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian writer and Nobel Laureate (1970), known for The Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.
1922: Birth of the Greek singer Grigoris Bithikotsis.
1930: The Bank of the United States in New York, with at least 400,000 depositors, closes along with its 60 branches.
1931: The British Parliament passes legislation granting independence to several British dominions.
1941: The United States declares war on Germany and Italy.
1946: Founding of UNICEF.
1950: Birth of Christina Onassis.
1964: Che Guevara addresses the United Nations in New York.
1981: Peruvian diplomat Javier Pérez de Cuéllar becomes Secretary-General of the United Nations.
1991: In Maastricht, France, the twelve EEC leaders sign the treaty on political, economic and monetary union.
1992: In India, 1,100 people are killed in six days of riots following the destruction of a mosque in Ayodhya.
1994: Russian forces enter Chechnya to suppress the separatist movement led by President Dudaev.
1995: A car bomb detonates in central Madrid, killing six people and injuring twelve, three of them seriously.
1997: At the UN climate conference in Kyoto, a treaty is signed committing developed countries to an average 5.2% reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions.
2001: China joins the World Trade Organization.
2006: Mexican President Felipe Calderón announces the launch of an armed campaign against drug cartels — a conflict that continues today, with tens of thousands of casualties.
2007: Two car bombs explode outside the main courthouse in Algiers, killing 45 people.
2012: HSBC reaches a settlement with US authorities, paying $1.9 billion over money-laundering allegations linked to drug cartels.
This article was originally published on Polignosi.
