1986: Scharansky released
After spending eight years in Soviet prisons and labor camps, human rights activist Anatoly Scharansky is released. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. President Ronald Reagan arranged the amnesty deal at a summit meeting three months earlier. Scharansky was imprisoned for his campaign to win the right for Russian Jews, who were officially forbidden to practice Judaism, to emigrate from the USSR.
Convicted of treason and agitation, Soviet authorities also labeled him an American spy. After his release, he immigrated to Israel, where he was given a hero's welcome. Later, as a member of Israel's parliament, he was an outspoken defender of Russian Jews.
2006
During the Italian general election campaign, Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi causes controversy by comparing himself to Jesus Christ.
2004
South Korean scientists announce they have successfully cloned the world's first human embryo. However, in 2006 it emerges that the results had been faked.
2002
The trial of former President of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic begins at the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
1999
President Clinton is acquitted by the United States Senate in his impeachment trial.
1994
In Oslo, Norway Edvard Munch The Scream is stolen by thieves from an art gallery.
1989
In Northern Ireland, loyalist paramilitary group the Ulster Freedom Fighters kill prominent lawyer Pat Finucane.
1964
In Cyprus, fighting between ethnic Turks and Greeks leaves sixteen people dead.
1954
In Britain, The Atomic Energy Authority is created, to oversee the regulation of the production of atomic energy.
1934
In Austria, the February uprising takes place between socialist and conservative forces.
1917
The First World War: The Austrian submarine U-35 sinks the American schooner Lyman M. Law in the Mediterranean Sea.
1915
The First World War: British planes attack the German-occupied coastal towns of Blankenberghe, Ostend and Zeebrugge in Belgium.
1912
Hsian-T'ung, the last emperor of China, is forced to abdicate following Sun Yat-sen's republican revolution.
1832
Ecuador annexes the Galapagos Islands, naming it Archipelago of Ecuador.
1818
Chile is proclaimed an Independent Republic
1554
Lady Jane Grey is beheaded at the Tower of London, England.