1888: The first women's beauty pageant is held in Spa, Belgium. First prize goes to 18-year-old Bertha Soucaret from Guatemala.
1893: In New Zealand, the governor ratifies a law granting women the right to vote.
1900: In France, President Émile Loubet grants amnesty to Jewish army captain Alfred Dreyfus, who was court-martialled twice and wrongly convicted of espionage.
1934: Beatles manager Brian Epstein is born.
1941: Cass Elliot, singer with The Mamas & the Papas, is born.
1948: British actor Jeremy Irons is born.
1949: Famous model Twiggy is born.
1949: Greek composer Nikos Skalkotas dies.
1952: The US bars Charlie Chaplin from re-entering the country after a trip to England.
1955: Argentine President Juan Perón is overthrown in a military coup.
1969: Singer Alkinoos Ioannidis is born.
1970: Shouting "Long live Free Greece," student Kostas Georgakis sets himself on fire in Genoa, Italy, in protest against the military regime in Greece.
1976: A Turkish Boeing 727 crashes into a mountain in southern Turkey, killing 155 people.
1982: The smiley :-) is used online for the first time, proposed by Scott Fahlman.
1983: The Caribbean islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis declare independence.
1985: Italian writer Italo Calvino dies at the age of 61.
1989: A bomb explodes aboard an aircraft over Niger, killing 171 people.
1991: In Peru, a bombing by the Maoist rebel group Shining Path kills seven people.
1991: German tourists discover an exceptionally well-preserved mummy in the Italian Alps, later named "Ötzi the Iceman."
1995: Croatia decides to halt attacks against Serbs and agrees with Bosnia that the territorial issue will be resolved through political dialogue.
1996: The European Parliament approves a resolution condemning Turkey for its lack of progress on human rights and democratisation.
2002: Israeli tanks surround Arafat's headquarters following a new Palestinian suicide bombing in Tel Aviv. The siege of Arafat's compound will last ten days.
2004: The Gospel is read in the modern Greek vernacular for the first time in the churches of the Archdiocese of Athens.
2006: Thailand's army carries out a coup and declares martial law.
2010: The leak at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, which caused immense ecological damage in the Gulf of Mexico, is sealed.
