1904 - Sir Henry Morton Stanley, the British-born journalist and African explorer, died. He is famous for rescuing the Scottish explorer David Livingstone in 1871.
1933 - Nazis, nationalist students, and professors gathered in a square in central Berlin to burn books by Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Bertolt Brecht, and other authors deemed "un-German" by followers of Adolf Hitler.
1940 - Winston Churchill assumed the position of British Prime Minister following the resignation of Neville Chamberlain.
1941 - Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess, flew from Augsburg and parachuted near Glasgow, Scotland, in a clear attempt to negotiate a peace agreement, but was captured and imprisoned.
1963 - Pope John XXIII received the Balzan Prize for Peace, the first peace award given to a pope.
1981 - François Mitterrand was elected as the first Socialist president of France.
1994 - Nelson Mandela was sworn in as the first Black president of South Africa.
1995 - Britain lifted a 23-year ban on ministerial talks with Sinn Féin, the political ally of the Irish Republican Army.
1997 - A 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck rural areas in eastern Iran, killing 1,560 people and injuring 2,810 others.
2005 - Germany unveiled a new memorial in Berlin for the six million Jews who were victims of Nazi terror.
2013 - The final piece of One World Trade Center was placed, making it the tallest building in the United States.
