|
1804 |
Birth of
Johann Strauss the elder, Austrian composer who is best known
for his Radetzky March. |
|
1820 |
Birth of
Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of a united Italy. Known as
the Honest King, he reigned as a strictly constitutional
monarch. |
|
1829 |
Birth of
Hoang Dieu, Governor of Ha Noi. He killed himself when the
citadel fell to the French in 1882. |
|
1835 |
Birth of
Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli, Italian astronomer. He
discovered the "canals" on Mars and the asteroid
Hesperia. |
|
1864 |
Samuel
Baker discovers another source of the Nile in East Africa and
names it Lake Albert Nyanza. |
|
1879 |
Birth of
Albert Einstein, German-born scientist and physicist. One of the
world's greatest physicists, he published his special theory of
relativity in 1905 and his general theory of relativity in 1916. |
|
1883 |
Karl Marx,
German philosopher and economist, dies in London. He adapted
Hegel's ideas to produce a theory of social change, dialectical
materialism. He published, with Friedrich Engels, the Communist
Manifesto. |
|
1900 |
Birth of
Vietnamese satirist Tu Mo, real name Ho Trong Hieu (died 1976). |
|
1900 |
The United
States adopts the gold standard. |
|
1924 |
Kim Van
Kieu, the first feature film made in Viet Nam, is shown for the
first time in Ha Noi. The film, however, was criticised for
having distorted the immortal verse story created by 18th
century poet Nguyen Du. |
|
1932 |
George
Eastman, American photographic pioneer who founded the Kodak
company, commits suicide. |
|
1939 |
Hungary
occupies the Carpatho-Ukraine and Slovakia declares its
independence. |
|
1945 |
Establishment
of the Ba To guerrilla unit in Quang Ngai Province, the first
Communist-led armed group in central Viet Nam. |
|
1945 |
The
heaviest bomb of World War II, the 10,000kg Grand Slam, is
dropped by the RAF's Dambuster Squadron in Germany on the
Bielefeld railway viaduct. |
|
1954 |
The
Vietnamese army takes Gabrielle, a major position of the French
at their fortified entrenched camp in Dien Bien Phu. |
|
1961 |
The
Democratic Republic of Viet Nam and Guinea sign their first
trade agreement. |
|
1964 |
Completion
of the expansion of the colonial-era cement plant in Viet Nam's
port city of Hai Phong, with Romanian assistance. |
|
1965 |
Viet Nam
and the Islamic Republic of Mauritania establish diplomatic
relations. |
|
1975 |
Death of
Susan Hayward, US actress. She won a Best Actress Oscar for her
role in I Want to Live! in 1958. |
|
1976 |
Death of
Busby Berkeley, US director and choreographer best known for his
lavish mass choreography work in the films 42nd Street, Gold
Diggers of 1933 and Roman Scandals. |
|
1980 |
Some 87
people including a 14-member US boxing team die in an air crash
in Warsaw. |
|
1982 |
Death of
Vietnamese writer and literary critic Hoai Thanh (born 1909). |
|
1983 |
OPEC
agrees to cut oil prices by 15 per cent for the first time in
its 23-year history. |
|
1984 |
Viet Nam
and France discuss repatriation of remains of French soldiers
killed during the First Indochina War which ended in 1954. |
|
1997 |
Death of
the Academy Award-winning director Fred Zinnemann, 89, whose
classic films included High Noon, From Here to Eternity and A
Man for All Seasons. |
|
1999 |
Afghanistan's
Taliban Islamic group and opposition factions agree in principle
to a create a coalition government and end decades of fighting. |
|
2000 |
Earth
Charter, a collection of ethical guidelines on subjects as
diverse as democracy, recycling, environmental degradation and
education, is launched in France. |
|
2001 |
Yoweri
Museveni is re-elected as Uganda's president. |
|
2002 |
Serbia and
Montenegro, the two republics that comprise the Yugoslav
federation, sign an accord to restructure their ties and
formally drop the name Yugoslavia. |
|
2003 |
South
Korea urges North Korea to defuse its nuclear standoff through
multilateral talks. The US warns North Korea is just months away
from enriching uranium to make atomic bombs. AP/REUTERS/VNS |
