1580

Birth of Jean Baptiste van Helmont, Belgian chemist; he invents the word gas and is the first chemist to take the melting-point of ice and the boiling point of water as standards for temperature.

1628

Birth of French writer Charles Perrault; famed for his fairy tales, notably Puss in Boots, Little Red Riding Hood and Sleeping Beauty.

1729

Birth of Edmund Burke, British politician, political thinker and author of Reflections on the Revolution in France.

1737

Birth of John Hancock, American Revolutionary leader and first signer of the Declaration of Independence.

1897

Death of Sir Isaac Pitman, British educator and inventor of shorthand.

1899

Birth of Paul Herman Muller, Swiss chemist; He won the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1948 for his formulation of the insecticide DDT.

1974

The Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Viet Nam Workers’ Party, now the Communist Party, passes a resolution against misappropriation of State property and other illegal activities.

1976

Death of Dame Agatha Christie, queen of the detective story and creator of detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.

1981

Viet Nam is recognised as a member of the United Nations Committee for Peaceful Use of Outer Space.

1983

Diversion of the Da River in north-western Viet Nam for a dam for the 1,900MW Hoa Binh Hydropower Plant, Viet Nam’s biggest.

1998

Germany agrees to establish a fund of 200 million marks (US$110 million) to compensate about 18,000 Jewish Nazi victims in eastern Europe.

2003

Members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agree to increase production by 6.5 per cent, or 1.5 million barrels a day, in a bid to offset a rise in prices brought on by a general strike in Venezuela and the possibility of a US-led war against Iraq.

2006

Thousands of Muslims surging to complete a stoning ritual before sunset, outside the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, stampede after some pilgrims trip over dropped luggage, causing a pileup that kills at least 360 people.

2007

Ethiopian-backed government forces capture the last remaining stronghold of the Islamic movement in southern Somalia hours after warlords met with President Abdullahi Yusuf and promised to enlist their militiamen in the army. — AP/REUTERS/VNS