1493 - Christopher Columbus discovers island of Dominica.
1903 – Panama gains independence from "Gran Colombia".
1918 - Austro-Hungarian Empire disolves.
1957 - USSR launches Sputnik 2 with a dog (Laika), 1st animal in orbit.
1978 – Dominica gains independence from United Kingdom.

1885 - Harlow Shapley, US, astronomer (studied the galaxies)
1889 - North Dakota becomes 39th & South Dakota becomes 40th state in the United States
1868 - Time zone: New Zealand officially adopts a standard time to be observed nationally
1944 - Jeffrey Alan Hoffman, Bkln, PhD/astronaut (STS 51-D, 35, 46, 61, 75)
2000 - The first crew arrives at the International Space Station.
International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists

1520 - The Ferdinand Magellan discovers a strait now known as Strait of Magellan.
1755 - Lisbon earthquake kills more than 50,000
1870 - US Weather Bureau begins operations (24 locations)
1954 - The Front de Libération Nationale fires the first shots of the Algerian War of Independence against France.
1973 - From rank station Trubarevo went first electric train in Macedonia.
1981 - Antigua & Barbuda gains independence from Britain (National Day)

1502 - Vasco da Gama returns to Calicut, India for the second time.
1772 - Captain Cook arrives with ship Resolution in Capetown
1864 - Helena, Montana's capital, founded
1967 - USSR Kosmos 186 & 188 make 1st automatic docking & Venmera 13 launch
1973 - The Bosporus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey is completed, connecting the continents of Europe and Asia over the Bosporus for the first time.
1979 - NASA launches space vehicle S-203
1980 - NASA launches Flt Satcom-4

1682 - William Penn lands at what is now Chester Pennsylvania
1792 - Mount Hood (Oregon) is named after the British naval officer Alexander Arthur Hood by Lt. William E. Broughton who spotted the mountain near the mouth of the Willamette River.
1863 - International Committee of Red Cross forms as result Geneva held conference (Nobel 1917, 1944, 1963)
1923 - Turkey becomes a republic following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. NATIONAL DAY
1991 - National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA's Galileo spacecraft makes its closest approach to 951 Gaspra, becoming the first probe to visit an asteroid.
2013 - Marmaray: Turkey opens a sea tunnel connecting Europe and Asia across the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul.