On this day

1989: Berliners celebrate the fall of the Wall
The Berlin Wall has been breached after nearly three decades keeping East and West Berliners apart.
At midnight East Germany's Communist rulers gave permission for gates along the Wall to be opened after hundreds of people converged on crossing points.

They surged through cheering and shouting and were be met by jubilant West Berliners on the other side.

Ecstatic crowds immediately began to clamber on top of the Wall and hack large chunks out of the 28-mile (45-kilometre) barrier.

It had been erected in 1961 on the orders of East Germany's former leader Walter Ulbricht stop people leaving for West Germany.

Since 1949 about 2.5 million people had fled East Germany.

After 1961, the Wall and other fortifications along the 860-mile (1,380-kilometre) border shared by East and West Germany have kept most East Germans in.

Many of those attempting to escape have been shot dead by border guards.

Exodus

The first indication that change was imminent came earlier today when East Berlin's Communist party spokesman, Gunther Schabowski, announced East Germans would be allowed to travel directly to West Germany.

The move was intended to stem an exodus into West Germany through the "back door" which began last summer when the new and more liberal regime in Hungary opened its border.

The flow of migrants was intensified last week when Czechoslovakia also granted free access to West Germany through its border.

West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl has hailed the decision to open the Wall as "historic" and called for a meeting with East German leader, Egon Krenz.


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Watch/Listen
Berliners clamber onto the Wall
The Wall was built in 1961


The Berlin Wall comes down







In Context
The opening of the Berlin Wall was preceded by a series of momentous events in East Germany.
They included the removal of the country's hardline Communist leader, Erich Honecker, and the resignation of the entire cabinet.

East Germany's new leader, Egon Krenz, called for free democratic elections.

But it was not enough to turn the tide and once the Berlin Wall was breached, East Germany disintegrated.

On 3 October 1990 the two Germanys merged to form a new united country.

In 1997 Egon Krenz received a six-and-a-half year jail sentence for the manslaughter of people killed by border guards when trying to escape to the West.


Stories From 9 Nov
1985: America welcomes Charles and Diana
1960: Narrow victory for John F Kennedy
1979: Paperboy's killers convicted
1989: Berliners celebrate the fall of the Wall
1970: France mourns death of de Gaulle




http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/witne...241641.stm

(09-11-2013 09:34 )bombshell Wrote:  The opening of the Berlin Wall was preceded by a series of momentous events in East Germany.
They included the removal of the country's hardline Communist leader, Erich Honecker, and the resignation of the entire cabinet.

East Germany's new leader, Egon Krenz, called for free democratic elections.

But it was not enough to turn the tide and once the Berlin Wall was breached, East Germany disintegrated.

In 1997 Egon Krenz received a six-and-a-half year jail sentence for the manslaughter of people killed by border guards when trying to escape to the West.

Egon Krenz always protested that his jail sentence was unfair and "victor's justice", and to some extent he was right.

Although he'd been a member of the Poliburo for more than a decade he'd had little to do with what had happened with the Wall, and when he took over as leader he was shocked to find that Erich Honecker had concealed the true state of East Germany's finances even from his closest advisers, and the first thing Krenz had to do was to negotiate an emergency secret loan from West Germany.

The real villain of the piece was the hardliner Honecker, who fled to Moscow only to find that the Russians wanted nothing to do with their former ally, and he ended up in the extraordinary situation of being deported from Russia in 1991. He managed to get to Chile, only to find himself facing extradition proceedings to face trial in Germany. However, a Berlin court released him (despite considerable public opposition) as he was suffering from terminal cancer and he returned to Chile where he died aged 81 having only spent a short time in jail on remand and effectively unconvicted and unpunished.

Krenz's problem was his huge unpopularity. After a visit to West Germany he was described by one West German minister thus: "He struck me as the consummate apparatchik, a true child of the system, surrounded by the oiliest advisers, the sort of people who would do anything. I was totally shocked". Her impression was not that of a would-be reformer, but of a tough, cynical politician, interested first and foremost in his own career.

He served just under four years of his sentence before being released on parole. After his release he quietly retired to the small town of Dierhagen on the Baltic coast, where he lives to this day at the age of 76.

November 9th

1865 - USA: North Carolina overturned its secession ordinance, prohibited slavery, and elected representatives to the US Congress. The state was re-admitted to the Union in 1868.

1872 - USA: A fire begins in Boston, Massachusetts, and rages for three days, destroying some 65 acres of the city, killing 13 people, and destroying $75,000,000 in property.

1900 - China: Around 100,000 Russian troops complete the occupation of Manchuria.

1906 - USA: The first foreign trip by a US President is made by Theodore Roosevelt, sailing on the battleship Louisiana to visit the Isthmus of Panama, to visit the canal.

1909 - London: Suffragettes throw stones at the Guildhall during the Lord Mayor's banquet.

1918 - USA: Charlie Chaplin announces he has married the actress Mildred Harris in Los Angeles on October 23.

1920 - Rome: Pope Benedict XV bans the Film "Holy Bible" for its naked portrayal of Adam and Eve.

1921 - USA: The Unknown Soldier arrives in the US from France, for reburial in Arlington Cemetery.

1922 - London: Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir William Horwood, poisoned by arsenic-filled chocolates.

1926 - UK: 15.4 million tons of coal are imported during the pit strike, which loses the industry £300 million.

1930 - Austria: The Socialists are victorious in elections to the Austrian Parliament; Nazis and Communists win no seats.

1936 - Berlin: Germany admits it is building aircraft carriers.

1938 - London: The government calls a round-table conference on the future of Palestine.

1939 - South Africa: An alleged Nazi plot by armed blackshirts to sabotage vital industries in Johannesburg and Pretoria is revealed.

1942 - Poland: A concentration camp opens at Majdanek; 4,000 jews arrive fom Lublin.

1946 - USA: The Lockheed Constellation, capable of carrying a record 168 passengers, makes its maiden flight in California.

1950 - London: ICI announces it will build a new factory at Redcar, to produce a new fabric, "Terylene."

1959 - USA: Consumers are warned against buying Cranberries grown in Washngton and Oregon. Arthur S. Flemming, secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, announces that a weed killer causing cancer in rats had contaminated Cranberries grown during the 58/59 growing season.

1960 - UK: The world's first "hover-scooter" is demonstrated in Surrey.

1965 - USA: A massive Northeast power blackout strikes an 80,000 square-mile area comprising New York, most of New England, parts of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ontario, and Quebec. The Blackout lasted as long as 13 hours in some areas, and was initiated by the malfunction of an automatic relay device at a generating plant near Niagara Falls

1967 - London: Bernard Haitink gives his first concert as principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

1971 - London: The BBC is inundated with complaints after a boy uses a four-letter word on "Woman's Hour."

1974 - USA: Bachman Turner Overdrive hit No.1 on the US singles charts with "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet."

1983 - Amsterdam: Brewing Magnate Alfred Heineken is Kidnapped.

1986 - Tel Aviv: The Israeli's admit they hold Mordechai Vanunu, the nuclear technician believed kidnapped in Britain.

1987 - UK: New government proposals state free dental check-ups are to be scrapped.

1988 - USA: The USAF makes public its Lockheed F-117A "Stealth" fighter plane which is undetectable by radar.

1990 - Republic of Ireland: Mary Robinson is confirmed as the first woman President of the Republic of Ireland.

1993 - Geneva: The UN states that the number of refugees worldwide has risen from 2.5 million in 1973 to 19.7 million in twenty years.

2005 - Kazakhstan: The first mission to Venus in over a decade "Venus Express" blasts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

2007 - Mogadishu: 40 people are killed in heavy fighting between Ethiopian forces and Somalian Islamist insurgents.

2010 - USA: Construction of a factory for the first fleet of commercial Spaceships, begins at the Mojave Air and Space Port.

(09-11-2013 14:32 )4evadionne Wrote:  November 9th

{SNIP}

1936 - Berlin: Germany admits it is building aircraft carriers.

{SNIP}

I never knew they had an aicraft carrier, so I checked.
The German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin was only 85% complete by the outbreak of World War II, and was never operational.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_airc...f_Zeppelin

November 10th

1775 - USA: Two Battalions of Continental Marines were organized by the Continental Congress as a component of its naval force. The US Marine Corps was not formally established until July 1789.

1905 - Russia: An Imperial decree closes all Universities.

1910 - London: German Violinist Fritz Kreisler gives the first performance of Edward Elgar's violin concerto.

1911 - New York: The Carnegie Corporation of New York is established by Andrew Carnegie with an initial endowment of $125,000,000. It was the first of the great foundations for scholarly and charitable endeavours.

1914 - South East Asia: The Australian cruiser Sydney sinks the German cruiser Emden off the coast of Sumatra.

1920 - London: The body of the Unknown British soldier arrives from France for internment in Westminster Abbey.

1927 - USA: The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded jointly to Arthur Holly Compton of the University of Chicago for his discovery of the "Compton Effect", observed in collisions of x-rays and gamma rays and their variation in wavelength; and to Charles Thomson Rees Wilson of Scotland for his development of the vapour condensation method for tracking the paths of electrically charged particles.

1930 - London: Over 30 people are injured when four elephants stampede during the Lord Mayor's Show.

1931 - UK: Graham Greene's novel "Rumour and Nightfall" is published.

1939 - Amsterdam: The US consulate advises Americans to quit the Netherlands.

1941 - London: Winston Churchill pledges to join the US "within the hour" if it goes to war with Japan.

1944 - China: Japanese forces capture the US air bases at Kweilin and Liuchow, in the Kwangsi province.

1951 - USA: The first transcontinental direct dial telephone service is inaugurated when Englewood, New Jersey mayor M. Leslie Denning calls Alameda, California mayor Frank P. Osborn. The call marked the beginning of a test program involving some 10,000 customers of the New Jersey Bell system.

1955 - London: The BBC is given exclusive rights to televise cricket test matches.

1958 - UK: Donald Campbell sets a new water speed record of 248.62mph.

1960 - UK: Penguin's first 200,000 copy run of "Lady Chatterley's Lover" sells out on the first day of publication.

1961 - USSR: Stalingrad is renamed Volgograd.

1967 - London: MP's approve the Countryside Bill, which allows local authorities to set up Country Parks.

1970 - London: Henry Cooper knocks out Jose Manuel Ibar to regain the European heavyweight boxing championship.

1971 - Belfast: Two women are tarred and feathered for dating British soldiers.

1975 - USA: The parents of Karen Anne Quinlan, a young woman who had been comatose in hospital for seven months, lose a bid in a New Jersey Superior Court to have the respirator believed to be keeping their daughter alive turned off. The court ruled that although her condition was irreversible, she was not dead according to legal or medical criteria. On March 31 1976, the New Jersey Supreme Court gave its approval for disconnecting the respirator. Karen proved able to breath without assistance.

1984 - UK: Setting a new record for advanced orders of 1,099, 500 copies, Frankie Goes To Hollywood hit No.1 on the UK album chart with their debut LP "Welcome To The Pleasure Dome."

1988 - Glasgow: Scottish Nationalist's win the Govan constituency from Labour in a shock win.

1992 - London: John Major orders an inquiry into the "Iraqgate affair" consisting of the sale of equipment capable of boosting Iraq's military might.

1995 - Sri Lanka: The Tamil Tigers resume public executions of alleged Tamil traitors.

1996 - Las Vegas: Evander Holyfield becomes the new world heavyweight boxing champion, defeating Mike Tyson after 11 rounds at the MGM Grand Garden.

1997 - New York: A modern-art collection built up for around $2 million by an American couple, Victor and Sally Ganz, is sold at Christie's for $206 million.

2005 - London: A Boeing 777-200LR worldliner jet breaks the record for the longest non-stop passenger airline flight. The 12,500 mile from Hong Kong to London took 23 hours.

2007 - Peru: Peruvian archaeologist Walter Alva discovers a 4,000 year old temple on the Ventarron site, in the Lambayeque region.

2008 - China: A 6.5 magnitude earthquake, shakes Western China's Quinghai Province.

2011 - UK: British Home Secretary Theresa May bans the Islamic Extremist Group "Muslims Against Crusades" which planned to repeat a demonstration of poppy burning held on Rememberance Day in 2010.

(10-11-2013 12:04 )4evadionne Wrote:  November 10th

{SNIP}

1961 - USSR: Stalingrad is renamed Volgograd.

{SNIP}

From wikipedia
On January 31, 2013, the Volgograd City Council passed a measure to use the name "Stalingrad" in city statements on six specific dates annually. On the following dates Volgograd's name officially reverts to Stalingrad:
February 2 (end of the Battle of Stalingrad), May 9 (Victory Day (9 May)), June 22 (start of Operation Barbarossa), August 23 (start of the Battle of Stalingrad), September 2 (Victory over Japan Day), and November 19 (start of Operation Uranus).
In addition, 50,000 people signed a petition to Vladimir Putin, asking that the city's name be permanently changed to Stalingrad.

November 11th

1868 - USA: Members of the Eighth Cavalry fight with a band of Indians near Squaw Peak on the Tonto Plateau in Arizona. 15 Indians were killed and 40 are wounded.

1889 - USA: Washington is admitted into the union, becoming the 42nd state.

1920 - Paris: The Unknown French Soldier is buried under the Arc de Triomphe.

1924 - New York: Prices soar to record heights on Wall Street as 2,258,399 shares are traded.

1927 - Washington: The International Radio Telegraph conference agrees to compulsory arbitration in radio disputes.

1928 - Sicily: Lava erupting from Mount Etna, threatens Catania, having destroyed large areas including villages and railways.

1933 - Berlin: President Hindenburg urges the German people to vote for Adolf Hitler.

1937 - USA: The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded jointly to Clinton Joseph Davisson of Bell Telephone Laboratories in New York City and Sir George Paget Thomson of Great Britain, for their independent "discovery of the interference phenomenon in crystals irradiated by electrons."

1938 - Ankara: Ismet Onu succeeds Kemal Ataturk as President of Turkey.

1939 - Europe: The Allies exchange friendship messages to mark Armistice Day.

1940 - Dachau: 55 Polish intellectuals are executed in the camps first official mass execution.

1942 - Indian Ocean: The Indian minesweeper Bengal (with assistance from the tanker Ondina) sinks two Japanese merchant raiders, despite being outgunned.

1943 - Theresienstadt: Around 47,000 Jews are forced to stand outside in freezing cold and rain for a solid eight hours, in a callous act of German Brutality.

1944 - Tokyo: The aircraft carrier Shinano, with a steel and concrete construction supposedly capable of withstanding any bomb attack, joins the Japanese fleet.

1947 - London: The Government announce that vegetarians will not receive extra potato rations.

1952 - London: Herbert Morrison beats Nye Bevan for Labours deputy leadership by 194 votes to 82.

1953 - USA: The polio virus is identified and photographed for the first time.

1959 - London: The ITA rejects complaints that ITV shows too many advertisements.

1964 - London: An Economy budget raises income tax by 6% to pay for larger old age pensions.

1969 - USA: Aboard a plane travelling to a Rolling Stones concert, Jim Morrison is arrested by the FBI in Arizona for being drunk and disorderly.

1971 - New York: The Prisoner of Second Avenue a comedy by Neil Simon and starring Peter Falk and Lee Grant opens at the Eugene O' Neill Theatre.

1973 - Egypt: Israel and Egypt sign a cease-fire agreement.

1978 - USA: Donna Summer begins a three week stint at No.1 on the US singles chart with her version of Jimmy Webb's "Macarthur Park", which was also a hit for actor Richard Harris in 1968.

1982 - Belfast: The SDLP and Sinn Fein boycott the opening of the Northern Island Assembly.

1983 - UK: The first US cruise missiles arrive in the UK. In all 572 of the intermediate-range missiles were to be deployed in Europe, including 160 in Great Britain.

1984 - USA: Washington: Ronald Reagan formally accepts the privately-funded Vietnam Memorial for the US nation.

1987 - New York: The Painting "Irises" by Vincent Van Gogh fetches the highest price bid for a painting selling for $53.9 million.

1990 - USA: The first recipient of a heart and liver transplant in the same operation dies. Stormie Jones was not quite seven years old when the operation was performed on her in a Pittsburgh hospital on Feb 14 1984.

1993 - New York: The UN imposes new sanctions on Libya for its refusal to hand over two suspects in the downing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie.

1997 - Tel Aviv: Israeli television reveals that an agent of Shin Bet, the Israeli secret service, may have been involved in the assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.

1998 - Europe: Belgium, France and Britain hold ceremonies commemorating the World War 1 armistice on its 80th anniversary.

2005 - Kuwait: The first reported case of the H5N1 avian influenza virus in the middle east is found in Kuwait.

2008 - Egypt: Zahi Hawass, Egypt's Antiquities Chief announces the discovery of a 4,300 year-old pyramid belonging to the mother of King Teti, Queen Sesheset.

2009 - South Africa: A new dinosaur speices named Aardonyx Celestae, estimated to be 195 million years old is discovered.

2011 - Australia: The Gold Coast in the state of Queensland is chosen as the host city for the 2018 Commonwealth Games ahead of Hambantota in Sri Lanka.

November 12th

1836 - USA: The telling phrase the almighty dollar is coined by Washington Irving in his story "The Creole Village", which appeared in The Knickerbocker Magazine on this date. The full phrase was "The Almighty Dollar, that great object of universal devotion throughout the land."

1901 - UK: Severe gales lash the country, resulting in nearly 200 deaths.

1905 - Poland: Martial law is declared in Russian-occupied Poland.

1908 - Germany: A pit explosion at Hamm, in Westphalia, results in the deaths of 360 miners.

1918 - London: Parliament votes for a war loan of £700 million; the UK's war debts stand at £7,100 million.

1924 - Rome: Benito Mussolini opens Italy's new one chamber parliament.

1928 - Atlantic: The Liner "Vestris" sinks off the Virginia coast, with the reported loss of one-third of its 339 passengers.

1935 - USA: A Texas mob of around 700 people lynch two black suspects accused of murder.

1937 - UK: "Out of Africa" by Danish writer Karen Blixen is published.

1939 - Germany: Clothes rationing cards are issued.

1940 - Berlin: Adolf Hitler issues his 18th war directive, ordering political measures to bring Spain into the war and to bring death by slow strangulation to Britain.

1941 - Mediterranean: The British carriers Ark Royal and Argus deliver 34 Hurricanes to Malta for Operation Perpetual.

1944 - Berlin: Hitler tells the German nation "My life does not matter" in a proclamation read out by Heinrich Himmler.

1945 - USA: The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to former secretary of state Cordell Hull for his contributions to the establishment of the United Nations.

1956 - UK: Johnnie Ray is at No.1 on the UK singles charts with "Walking in the Rain." staying at the top for seven weeks.

1957 - London: The GPO announces plans to introduce postcodes rather than addresses.

1962 - London: Harold Macmillan states that Britain is ready to sign a partial nuclear test ban treaty, with the US and the Soviet Union.

1964 - Prague: Antonin Novotny is re-elected President of Czechoslovakia.

1968 - UK: W.H. Smiths refuses to display the Jimi Hendrix Experience's album "Electric Ladyland" due to the naked girls featured on the sleeve.

1970 - USA: Sleuth by Anthony Shaffer, a thriller starring Anthony Quayle and Keith Baxter, opens at the Music Box in New York City.

1971 - Northern Ireland: The government announces that the Ulster police are to be armed with automatic weapons.

1972 - Scotland: The Queen receives verbal abuse from students during a visit to Sterling University.

1975 - Moscow: Andrei Sakharov is denied a visa to go to Oslo to receive his Nobel Peace Prize.

1976 - Paris: Vietnam and the US begin their first formal peace talks since the Vietnam War.

1981 - UK: British Leyland announce a new deal with the Japanese car and motor cycle giant Honda.

1983 - Belfast: Gerry Adams is elected leader of Sinn Fein.

1984 - Outer Space: The first space salvage operation is performed during the second flight of the space shuttle Discovery. Astronauts Joseph Allen and Dale Garner retrieved a non-functioning satellite and brought it into the shuttle's cargo bay.

1987 - UK: Arthur Scargill states he will seek re-election as NUM President.

1989 - Berlin: Over a million East Berliners visit the West after more crossing points are opened in the Berlin Wall.

1990 - Kuwait: Kuwaiti Citizens are given two weeks to take up Iraqi identity cards.

1997 - Rio de Janeiro: The Brazilian Supreme Court turns down an application from Britain for the extradition of Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs.

2006 - Iraq: A suicide bomber kills at least 35 people and injures 50 more, at a police recruiting centre in Baghdad.

2009 - China: A Mine collapse in Western China results in the deaths of 18 people.

2011 - USA: US secretary of state Hillary Clinton demands that Iran responds to the serious concerns raised by the International Atomic Energy Agency report that Iran appears to be working on nuclear bomb technology.

November 13th

1829 - USA: Sam Patch a high diver, dies after a 125ft dive into the Genesee Falls. His body was found months later at the rivers mouth. He had earlier made a dive of 80 to 90 feet from the Passaic River's Chasm Bridge and a Niagara Falls jump from Goat Island.

1854 - USA: A shipwreck off the New Jersey coast of the emigrant ship New Era en route to New York City from Bremen, Germany, kills nearly 300 people.

1902 - North Africa: Royal Navy cruisers are sent to Tetuan, following the outbreak of a rebellion.

1909 - USA: An explosion at the St Paul's Mine in Cherry, Illinois kills 259 miners.

1916 - USA: The first complete US production of "The Pearl Fishers" by Georges Bizet, marks the opening of the Metropolitan Opera's season.

1920 - Geneva: 5,000 representatives from 41 nations attend the opening of the first League of Nations full session.

1926 - Italy: Mario de Bernardi sets a world seaplane speed record of 246mph.

1927 - UK: Britain's first automatic telephone exchange is installed at Holborn in London.

1930 - France: 40 people are killed in a landslide in the city of Lyons.

1934 - Rome: The government orders all teachers to wear the Fascist uniform during school hours.

1939 - UK: HMS Blanche is mined and sunk off the Thames Estuary, becoming the first destroyer lost by the Royal Navy.

1940 - Pacific: The Dutch East Indies agrees to supply Japan with nearly 2 million tons of oil a year.

1942 - Solomon Islands: US dive-bombers repeatedly attack the Japanese battleship Hiei

1943 - USSR: Soviet Troops complete the capture of Zhitomir.

1944 - Yugoslavia: German forces evacuate Skoplje,

1946 - New York: Albania protests to the UN over Britain's mine-sweeping in the Corfu Channel.

1954 - Cairo: Nasser ousts President Neguib, and puts him under house arrest.

1956 - Washington: The US Supreme Court declares invalid, Alabama's state law segregating blacks and whites on buses.

1961 - Algeria: Captured rebel leader Ben Bella, now on the 11th day of hunger strike, is transferred to a French hospital.

1966 - London: Supporters of Ian Smith stage a Remembrance Day demonstration outside 10 Downing Street.

1967 - London: Britain is reported to have received $250 million in international credits to bolster the pound.

1971 - USA: NASA announce that Mariner 9 has gone into orbit around Mars.

1972 - USA: An international convention to control oceanic pollution is signed by the US and 90 other nations.

1973 - UK: A state of emergency is declared as power workers and miners begin industrial action.

1981 - London: A bomb explodes at the home of Attorney General Sir Michael Havers, luckily he was away at the time.

1982 - UK: Former Equals singer Eddie Grant is No.1 on the UK singles chart with "I Don't Wanna Dance."

1992 - Peru: An attempt to overthrow President Alberto Fujimori ends in failure.

1994 - Massachusetts: A 79-year old golfer drops dead after shooting his first-ever hole in one.

2005: Thailand: An 18th month old boy from Bangkok becomes the fourth confirmed case of HN51 bird flu in the country.

2007 - Kenya: A fossil of a new prehistoric great ape species named Nakalipithecus Nakayamai is discovered in Kenya.

2010: Afghanistan: Taliban insurgents attack Jalalabad Airport, and a nearby base.

2012: Australia: A total eclipse occurs in parts of Australia and the South Pacific. The most populated city to experience Totality was Cairns.

November 14th

1851 - USA: Lieutenant Colonel J.J. Abercrombie and members of the Fifth Infantry Division, begin the construction of Fort Phantom Hill, north of Abilene, Texas. The fort was often visited by the local Comanche, Lipan Apache, Kiowa, and Kickapoo Indians.

1908 - Switzerland: Professor Albert Einstein presents his "quantum" theory of light.

1909 - Brussels: European powers meet to discuss regulation of the arms market in Africa.

1910 - USA: The first naval aircraft launching from the deck of a US warship was accomplished by Eugene Ely, who took off from the cruiser Birmingham at Hampton Roads, Virginia.

1911 - London: The new London Opera House opens on Kingsway.

1918 - Warsaw: Josef Pilsudski becomes President of Poland, with full dictatorial powers.

1922 - Berlin: Chancellor Joseph Wirth resigns over the economic crisis gripping the country.

1930 - Japan: Prime Minister Hamagushi is shot dead by an extreme right wing militant.

1935 - Manila: Manuel Quezon is sworn in as first president of the US "Commonwealth of the Philippines."

1938 - Washington: Hugh R. Wilson, the US ambassador to Germany is summoned to Washington to confer with President Roosevelt on anti-Jewish activities in Nazi Germany.

1939 - Europe: The Allies agree to draw up defensive lines on the River Dyle in Belgium in readiness of German attacks.

1940 - UK: The city of Coventry is devastated by the worst air raid of the war, resulting in the deaths of many civilians.

1941 - Libya: British Commandos with a mission to attack Irwin Rommel's campaign headquarters, are landed from the submarines Talisman and Torbay near Apollonia.

1943 - Germany: U794, the German Navy's first true submarine, goes into service at Kiel: it was fitted with a Schnorkel to provide the diesel engines with oxygen while submerged.

1944 - France: Free French troops launch Operation Independence, in an effort to close the Belfort Gap.

1947 - UK: Three people, including a German V-2 expert are reported killed during secret rocket tests in Buckinghamshire.

1950 - UK: Jack Gardner defeats Bruce Woodcock to become British heavyweight boxing champion.

1951 - Vietnam: French paratroopers capture the town of Hao Binh in less than 24 hours.

1952 - Kenya: The British Governor closes 34 schools of the Kikuyu Tribe, after being suspected of Mau Mau involvement.

1954 - USA: Bill Haley and the Comets score their first US Top Ten hit with Shake, Rattle and Roll."

1960 - USA: Ray Charles hits No.1 on the US singles chart with "Georgia On My Mind."

1963 - Greece: Hundreds of prisoners, jailed during the 1944-50 Communist revolt, are set free.

1968 - London: Edward Heath appoints Margaret Thatcher as Shadow Transport Minister.

1969 - USA: Apollo 12, manned by Charles Conrad Jr, Richard F. Gordon Jr, and Alan L. Bean, is launched on a lunar flight from Cape Kennedy in rainy weather. Some 36.5 seconds after lift off, it was hit by an electrical charge, which briefly knocked out power in the spacecraft but not in the rocket.

1973 - UK: Eight IRA terrorists are found guilty of car bombings in London.

1974 - UK: Police search the Sussex coves for the missing alleged nanny killer Lord Lucan.

1977 - UK: Fireman go on strike demanding a 30% pay increase.

1981 - USA: The space shuttle "Columbia" completed its second mission, the second flight ever of a reusable spacecraft. The mission was cut short by the failure of a fuel cell.

1986 - London: The Government rushes through tougher rules against insider dealing on the Stock Exchange.

1987 - UK: George Michael goes to No.1 on the UK albums chart with his debut solo album "Faith."

1992 - London: The England XV beat South Africa 33-16 at Twickenham in the first game between the two countries since 1984 due to sporting relations being broken over apartheid.

1998 - Buenos Aries: 170 countries agree to institute measures to control greenhouse gas emission at a UN conference on global warming.

2007 - UK: High Speed 1 (Formally known as the channel tunnel rail link) opens for commercial use in Britain.

2008 - USA: General Ann E. Dunwoody becomes the first female four star general in the history of the US army.

2009 - Taiwan: Thousands of protestors in Taipei demonstrate against imports of certain US beef products.

2011 - UK: The Levinson Enquiry into phone hacking gets underway in London.