1900 - A small force of British cavalry, under the command of Colonel Robert Baden-Powell, relieved the garrison at Mafeking (now Mafikeng) in South Africa after 217 days of siege by Dutch-speaking Boer settlers.
1989 - Hundreds of thousands of protesters filled Tiananmen Square in the largest popular uprising in China since the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s.
1997 - Laurent Kabila announced that he had "assumed power as head of state in Zaire," as his forces seized control of the capital Kinshasa, and he renamed the country the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
2000 - The leader of the "rebels," Foday Sankoh, was captured in the capital Freetown during a United Nations hostage crisis in Sierra Leone.
2001 - A Russian-made Yak-40 plane crashed in northern Iran, killing all 30 people on board, including Iranian Transportation Minister Rahman Dadman and other deputy ministers.
2004 - Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to allow same-sex marriage.
2005 - A ferry carrying about 200 people sank in the Jamuna River in Bangladesh, with only 50 survivors.
2006 - Romano Prodi was sworn in as Prime Minister of Italy.
2007 - North and South Korea sent trains across the heavily armed border for the first time since the 1950-1953 war.
2011 - The first Pillow Fight World Championship was held in New York.
2016 - The world's largest cruise ship, "Harmony of the Seas," arrived at port on its inaugural voyage.
