1521: Reform leader Martin Luther is excommunicated by Pope Leo X.
1875: French publisher and encyclopaedist Pierre Larousse dies.
1892: Writer John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, creator of The Lord of the Rings, is born.
1899: The word “automobile” is used for the first time in a leading article of The New York Times.
1910: In Germany, the Social Democratic Party congress calls for women to be granted the right to vote.
1919: The Greek government accepts a proposal by French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau to send Greek forces to Russia as part of the Entente intervention against the Red Army.
1923: Czech writer Jaroslav Hašek dies at the age of 39. His major satirical work, The Good Soldier Švejk, remains unfinished.
1924: The sarcophagus of Pharaoh Tutankhamun is discovered by British Egyptologist Howard Carter.
1925: Benito Mussolini announces the establishment of a dictatorship in Italy.
1929: Film director Sergio Leone, regarded as the father of the spaghetti western, is born.
1947: Proceedings of the United States Congress are broadcast on television for the first time.
1951: Poet Georgios Drosinis dies at the age of 94.
1956: Actor and director Mel Gibson is born.
1957: The first electric clock is unveiled by the Hamilton Watch Company.
1961: Diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba are severed.
1962: Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro.
1967: Jack Ruby, who was accused of killing Lee Harvey Oswald - officially identified as the assassin of President John F. Kennedy - dies shortly before his second trial.
1969: 300,000 copies of John Lennon’s album Two Virgins are seized after being deemed pornographic, as the cover depicts Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono nude.
1980: A five-day working week is introduced in the Greek public sector.
1994: In the Mexican state of Chiapas, clashes between farmers and soldiers leave 55 people dead, including many Zapatistas.
1995: The World Health Organization announces that 4.5 million people worldwide have been infected with the AIDS virus.
2004: An Egyptian airline aircraft crashes into the Red Sea, killing 148 people.
2011: Experts announce that Facebook’s value is estimated at $50 billion.
2013: Gérard Depardieu acquires Russian citizenship in protest against high taxation in France.
2013: American-Spanish actress Patty Shepard dies.
This article was originally published on Polignosi.
