|
1573 |
English
explorer Francis Drake first sees the Pacific Ocean. |
|
1847 |
Birth
of Thomas Alva Edison, US inventor who registered over 1,000
patents. His patents included those on the gramophone and
the incandescent light bulb. |
|
1868 |
Jean
Foucault, French physicist and inventor of the gyroscope,
dies in Paris. |
|
1873 |
Amadeo,
king of Spain, abdicates, leading to the proclamation of the
first Spanish republic. |
|
1879 |
Death
of Honore Daumier, French caricaturist, painter and
sculptor, whose satirical lithographs in La Caricature and
Le Charivari exposed the foibles of contemporary French
government and society. |
|
1929 |
The
Lateran Treaty is signed establishing an independent Vatican
State in Rome. |
|
1930 |
Death
of Nguyen Khac Nhu, patriot and a leader of The Viet Nam
Nationalist Party. |
|
1931 |
Death
of Sir Charles Algernon Parsons, British steam turbine
engineer and inventor. |
|
1940 |
Death
of John Buchan, Scottish author of The Thirty Nine Steps
(1915). |
|
1945 |
The
Yalta Conference between Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt
ends with agreement on the founding of the UN, as well as
plans for the defeat of Germany. |
|
1950 |
Establishment
of the Viet Nam – China Friendship Association. |
|
1951 |
The
Second National Congress of the Indochinese Communist Party
held in the revolutionary base of Viet Bac changes the name
of the Party to The Viet Nam Workers Party and decides to
move from underground to legal activities. |
|
|
The
congress elects Ho Chi Minh President and Truong Chinh
General Secretary of the Party’s Central Committee. |
|
1957 |
Viet
Nam’s first agricultural machine repair workshop built
with assistance from the Soviet Union is put into operation. |
|
1960 |
Death
of Erno Dohnanyi, Hungarian composer, pianist and conductor,
whose compositions included Variation on a Nursery Theme. |
|
1968 |
A
militia group of 11 young women defeats a 100-strong US
force on the Huong (Perfume) River in Hue during the 1968
Tet Offensive. |
|
1971 |
Forty
nations sign a treaty banning atomic weapons from the sea
bed. |
|
1975 |
Margaret
Thatcher becomes the first woman leader of a British
political party when she is elected leader of the
Conservatives. |
|
1990 |
Nelson
Mandela, black nationalist leader in South Africa, is
released from prison after serving 27 years. |
|
1994 |
Five
US astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut return aboard
Discovery after the first joint US – Russia space shuttle
mission. — AP/REUTERS/ VNS |
