1902 - Mount Pelée erupted in Martinique, destroying the city of Saint-Pierre, resulting in the deaths of over 30,000 people.
1903 - French painter Paul Gauguin died in Tahiti.
1978 - Italian climber Reinhold Messner and Austrian Peter Habeler became the first to climb Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen.
1989 - Janos Kadar, the Hungarian communist leader for over three decades, was ousted from his ceremonial position as head of the Communist Party.
1999 - British film actor Dirk Bogarde passed away at the age of 78, renowned for his roles in "Death in Venice," "The Victim," and "The Servant."
2002 - A suicide bomber killed himself and 11 French naval experts along with two Pakistanis outside the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi, Pakistan.
2003 - Moroccan King Mohammed VI ordered the release of 9,459 prisoners, including 239 foreigners, in one of the largest royal amnesty orders in the country's history, in celebration of the birth of his first child.
2005 - Lloyd Cutler, who served as a White House advisor for U.S. Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, died at 87.
2007 - Protestant and Catholic leaders in Northern Ireland, longstanding rivals during decades of violence, launched a power-sharing government in the British-controlled province.
2009 - Romanian chefs mixed 30,000 eggs to create the largest omelet for farmers in the world.
2014 - Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad oversaw the evacuation of opposition fighters from Homs, who had controlled the city for nearly two years.
