1801

Peace of Luneville between Austria and France marks virtual destruction of Holy Roman Empire.

1849

Rome is proclaimed republic under Giuseppe Mazzini.

1934

Romania, Greece, Yugoslavia and Turkey sign the Balkan Pact.

1941

German troops under Gen Erwin Rommel cross from Italy to North Africa in World War II.

1943

The World War II battle of Guadalcanal in the southwest Pacific ends with an American victory over Japanese forces.

1962

Jamaica becomes independent nation within British Commonwealth.

1964

The Beatles make their first live American television appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.

1990

Kenyan Foreign Minister Robert Ouko is found slain at his family farm before he was to have presented a report on corruption. Two of president Daniel Arap Moi's closest confidants are later named as suspects but never convicted.

1994

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Shimon Peres, Israel's foreign minister, reach agreement on security issues that have stalled the Israeli PLO peace accord.

1996

A bomb explodes in a London business district, killing two, injuring 37 and causing an estimated US$125 million in damage. The IRA claims responsibility.

2000

A Massachusetts court rules that a woman can't have frozen embryos she made with her former husband at a fertility clinic. The custody battle was a first in the state – and one of a few in the United States.

2002

Princess Margaret, 71, younger sister of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, dies.

2003

Iranian President Mohammed Khatami announces Iran has mined uranium for use in its power plants. He says Iran would retain control of the entire cycle of use of the uranium it mined, from processing the uranium ore to reprocessing the spent reactor fuel.

2008

Turkey's parliament votes to amend the constitution to lift a decades-old ban on Islamic head scarves at Turkey's universities. — AP/REUTRS/VNS