1797: The German poet Heinrich Heine is born.
1816: Ernst Werner von Siemens is born, a German inventor and entrepreneur, founder of the electrical engineering company Siemens.
1902: Panagiotis Kanellopoulos is born, a politician, philosopher and historian.
1929: Renowned actor Christopher Plummer is born in Canada.
1937: In China’s then capital, Nanjing, a horrific period begins as Japanese troops rape and massacre civilians for weeks. The death toll is estimated at 300,000.
1943: Nazi occupying forces destroy Kalavryta and execute 1,101 of its male inhabitants.
1949: The Israeli parliament (Knesset) decides to move the capital to Jerusalem.
1950: James Dean appears on television for the first time, taking part in a Pepsi commercial.
1966: American forces bomb Hanoi for the first time.
1971: The UN Security Council adopts Resolution No. 305 on the Cyprus issue, recommending the establishment of enhanced talks with the participation of a UN special representative and experts from Greece and Turkey.
1980: In San Salvador, Christian Democrat Duarte becomes the country’s first non-military President after 49 years.
1981: General Jaruzelski declares martial law in Poland.
1982: A magnitude-6 earthquake kills 3,000 people and injures 2,000 in Yemen. The quake levels the province of Dhamar, 60 miles south-east of the capital, Sana’a.
1990: The Academy of Athens awards Dido Sotiriou for her lifetime contribution to literature.
1991: Leaders from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan agree to join the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
1995: Chrysanthos Bostantzoglou, better known as Bost, visual artist and satirical cartoonist, dies.
1996: Kofi Annan is elected Secretary-General of the United Nations.
2002: The European Union expands, announcing that Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Lithuania will become member states on 1 May 2004.
2003: Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is captured near his hometown of Tikrit.
2006: The extinction of the Chinese river dolphin species, known as the baiji, is officially announced.
2007: The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union is signed in Lisbon by the leaders of the EU’s 27 member states.
This article was originally published on Polignosi.