1918

Austria's First Republic is proclaimed, one day after the World War One armistice and the abdication of Emperor Karl I.

1923

Adolf Hitler is arrested for a failed attempt to seize power on November 8 in Germany's Beer Hall Putsch.

1927

The first automobile tunnel, the Holland Tunnel between New York City and Jersey City beneath the Hudson River, is opened. It was designed to take 1,900 cars every hour.

1932

The Court in Hue decides to use the romanised Vietnamese language instead of the Han-Nom scripts throughout Central Viet Nam, then called Annam.

1936

A huge strike by more than 10,000 miners in Cam Pha Mine ends after a week. The day becomes the miners' day of Viet Nam.

1970

The worst rainy season in Colombia in 40 years kills as many as 500 people, more than a thousand others missing and 30,000-60,000 people homeless in Colombia. In East Pakistan a cyclone and tidal wave hit several districts, causing the deaths of at least 200,000 people.

1990

Emperor Akihito ascends the throne in Japan.

1996

A Saudi Arabian jumbo jet and a Kazakh airliner collide in mid-air over India, killing 349 people.

2001

An American Airlines Airbus-300 flight with 260 people on board crashed after taking off from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, hitting nearby homes. Everyone on the plane and five people on the ground were killed.

2006

Thousands of protesters demanding electoral reforms in Bangladesh target major transport links around Dhaka, attacking trains and other vehicles and leaving at least one person dead.

2008

Britain is facing a sperm donor shortage after reversing confidentiality laws and limiting the number of women who can use sperm from one donor, fertility experts warn. — AP/REUTERS/VNS