1919

First Congress of the Communist International is held.

1926

Students of the Ecole Pratique d'Industrie (Practical Industrial School) in Viet Nam's Thua Thien-Hue central province begin a six-month boycott against mistreatment by the French school management. The French had to make some concessions before classes could resume.

1930

Death of David Herbert Lawrence, English novelist and poet (born 1885); He is ranked among the most influential and controversial literary figures of the 20th century.

1943

Alexandre Emile Yersin, Swiss-French bacteriologist (born 1863), dies in Nha Trang, a town on Viet Nam's central coast. He arrived in Viet Nam in 1889, working as a doctor. Yersin discovered the Lang Biang Plateau in central Viet Nam, the highest part of which is the famed mountain resort of Da Lat.

1946

The National Assembly of the newly independent Viet Nam at its first meeting elects Ho Chi Minh president and approves his line-up for the Resistance Coalition Government against the French reoccupation.

1985

The US government approves a screening test for AIDS that detects antibodies to the virus, allowing possibly contaminated blood to be excluded from the blood supply.

1992

UN General Assembly welcomes nine new members: eight former Soviet republics and San Marino.

1995

Former Italian Premier Giulio Andreotti is indicted for consorting with the Mafia.

2004

Suicide bombers set off simultaneous attacks on Shiite Muslim shrines crowded with pilgrims in two Iraqi cities, killing at least 143 people and turning the holiest day on the Shiite calendar into the bloodiest since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

2006

Reversing decades of US policy, President Bush ushers India into the world's exclusive nuclear club with a landmark agreement to share nuclear reactors, fuel and expertise with the energy-starved nation in return for its acceptance of international safeguards.

2008

Dmitry Medvedev, the man Vladimir Putin hand-picked to be his successor, scores a crushing victory in Russia's presidential election. — AP/REUTERS/VNS