1762 - Catherine II becomes tsarina of Russia upon the murder of Peter III
1774 - Captain Cook arrives in the New Hebrides (Vanuatu)
1850 - Harvard Observatory takes 1st photograph of a star (Vega)
1897 - 1st ship arrives in Seattle carrying gold from Yukon
1959 - Paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey discovers the partial skull of a new species of early human ancestor, Zinjanthropus boisei or 'Zinj' (now called Paranthropus boisei) that lived in Africa almost 2 million years ago
1976 - Indonesian president Suharto annexes East Timor
1984 - Soyuz T-12 carries 3 cosmonauts to space station Salyut 7
