2012: Canada officially cuts diplomatic ties with Iran by closing its embassy in Tehran and orders the expulsion of Iranian diplomats from Ottawa, over nuclear plans and purported human rights abuses.
2010: A Chinese fishing trawler collided with two Japanese Coast Guard patrol boats in disputed waters near the Senkaku Islands.
2008: The United States government takes control of the two largest mortgage financing companies in the US, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
2005: Egypt holds its first-ever multi-party presidential election.
1999: The 6.0 Mw Athens earthquake affected the area with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), killing 143, injuring 800-1,600, and leaving 50,000 homeless.
1988: Abdul Ahad Mohmand, the first Afghan in space, returns aboard the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz TM-5 after nine days on the Mir space station.
1986: Desmond Tutu becomes the first black man to lead the Anglican Church in South Africa.
1979: The Chrysler Corporation asks the United States government for US$1.5 billion to avoid bankruptcy.
1978: While walking across Waterloo Bridge in London, Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov is assassinated by Bulgarian secret police agent Francesco Giullino by means of a ricin pellet fired from a specially-designed umbrella.
1977: The 300-metre-tall CKVR-DT transmission tower in Barrie, Ontario, Canada, is hit by a light aircraft in a fog, causing it to collapse. All aboard the aircraft are killed.
1977: The Torrijos-Carter Treaties between Panama and the United States on the status of the Panama Canal are signed. The United States agrees to transfer control of the canal to Panama at the end of the 20th century.
1970: Fighting between Arab guerrillas and government forces in Amman, Jordan.
1945: Japanese forces on Wake Island, which they had held since December of 1941, surrender to U.S. Marines.
1943: World War II: The German 17th Army begins its evacuation of the Kuban bridgehead (Taman Peninsula) in southern Russia and moves across the Strait of Kerch to the Crimea.
1943: A fire at the Gulf Hotel in Houston kills 55 people.
1942: World War II: Australian and US forces inflict a significant defeat upon the Japanese at the Battle of Milne Bay.
1940: World War II: The German Luftwaffe begins the Blitz, bombing London and other British cities for over 50 consecutive nights.
1936: The last thylacine, a carnivorous marsupial named Benjamin, dies alone in its cage at the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania.
1932: The Battle of Boquerón, the first major battle of the Chaco War, commences.
1929: Steamer Kuru capsizes and sinks on Lake Näsijärvi near Tampere in Finland. 136 lives are lost.
1927: The first fully electronic television system is achieved by Philo Farnsworth.
1923: The International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) is formed.
1920: Two newly purchased Savoia flying boats crash in the Swiss Alps en route to Finland where they would serve with the Finnish Air Force, killing both crews.
1909: Eugène Lefebvre crashes a new French-built Wright biplane during a test flight at Juvisy, south of Paris, becoming the first aviator in the world to lose his life in a powered heavier-than-air craft.
1907: Cunard Line's RMS Lusitania sets sail on her maiden voyage from Liverpool, England, to New York City.
1776: According to American colonial reports, Ezra Lee makes the world's first submarine attack in the Turtle, attempting to attach a time bomb to the hull of HMS Eagle in New York Harbor (no British records of this attack exist).
1695: Henry Every perpetrates one of the most profitable pirate raids in history with the capture of the Grand Mughal ship Ganj-i-Sawai. In response, Emperor Aurangzeb threatens to end all English trading in India.
1652: Around 15,000 Han farmers and militia rebel against Dutch rule on Taiwan.