1677: Baruch Spinoza, Dutch Jewish philosopher, dies.
1741: Jethro Tull, English agriculturalist and writer, whose name was later given to the rock band Jethro Tull, dies.
1842: John Greenough patents the sewing machine.
1848: The Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, is published in London.
1852: Nikolai Gogol, Russian writer (The Government Inspector, Dead Souls, Diary of a Madman, Taras Bulba), dies.
1878: The first telephone directory is published in the United States, containing 50 names.
1893: Andrés Segovia, Spanish classical guitarist, is born.
1913: The Greek army captures the fortified position of Bizani and liberates Ioannina from the Ottomans.
1915: Eleftherios Venizelos resigns as Prime Minister following a disagreement with King Constantine I of Greece over Greece’s participation in the First World War, marking the beginning of the National Schism.
1916: The Battle of Verdun begins in France, resulting in the deaths of 250,000 people.
1921: The Allies open an international conference in London on the Near East, focusing on Greco-Turkish border disputes.
1925: American film director Sam Peckinpah is born.
1930: The Germans begin construction of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
1933: Nina Simone, African-American singer, is born.
1942: Margarethe von Trotta, German actress, director and writer, is born.
1958: Gerald Holtom designs the peace symbol.
1960: Fidel Castro nationalises all businesses in Cuba.
1965: Malcolm X, African-American nationalist and Muslim religious leader, is assassinated in New York City at the age of 40.
1973: Students occupy the Athens Law School in protest against the military junta of the Colonels.
1975: Jennifer Love Hewitt, American actress, is born.
1984: Mikhail Sholokhov, Nobel Prize-winning Russian writer, dies.
1989: Czech playwright and future President Václav Havel is imprisoned by the communist authorities in Prague.
1991: The renowned prima ballerina Margot Fonteyn dies at the age of 72.
1993: Turkish President Turgut Özal accuses the Greeks of “chauvinism” over the naming dispute concerning Skopje.
1996: A storm of reactions is caused in Greece by a violent raid by EKAM special forces on a Roma camp in Aspropyrgos.
2012: British serial killer Colin Ireland, known as the “Gay Slayer”, dies.
2013: Two bombs in Hyderabad, India, kill 17 people.
2014: Singer and actor Sakis Boulas dies.
This article was originally published on Polignosi.