1805 – Napoleon was crowned in Milan, Italy.
1863 – The first black regiment left Boston to fight in the U.S. Civil War.
1918 – Azerbaijan declared independence.
1940 – World War II: Belgium surrenders to Nazi Germany to end the Battle of Belgium.
1940 – World War II: Norwegian, French, Polish and British forces recapture Narvik in Norway. This is the first allied infantry victory of the War.
1942 – World War II: In retaliation for the assassination attempt on Reinhard Heydrich, Nazis in Czechoslovakia kill over 1,800 people.
1948 – Daniel François Malan is elected as Prime Minister of South Africa. He later goes on to implement Apartheid.
1952 – The women of Greece are granted the right to vote.
1961 – Amnesty International, a human rights organization, was founded.
1964 – The Palestine Liberation Organization is formed.
1976 – The Peaceful Nuclear Explosion Treaty was signed, limiting any nuclear explosion – regardless of its purpose – to a yield of 150 kilotons.
1987 – Mathias Rust, a 19-year-old West German pilot, landed a private plane in Moscow’s Red Square after evading Soviet air defenses. He was released August 3, 1988.
1998 – Pakistan matched India with five nuclear test blasts. The U.S., Japan and other nations imposed economic sanctions. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said “Today, we have settled the score with India.”
1998 – Dr. Susan Terebey discovered a planet outside of our solar system with the use of photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.
1999 – In Milan, Italy, Leonardo de Vinci’s “The Last Supper” was put back on display after more than 20 years of restoration work.
2002 – Russia became a limited partner in NATO with the creation of the NATO-Russia Council.
2002 – The Mars Odyssey finds signs of large ice deposits on the planet Mars.
2008 – The first meeting of the Constituent Assembly of Nepal formally declares Nepal a republic, ending the 240-year reign of the Shah dynasty.
