1928 - Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen went missing on a flight over the Arctic Ocean.
1953 - The Republic of Egypt was declared, with General Mohamed Naguib as its first president.
1983 - Sally Ride became the first American woman to fly in space aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger.
1997 - Turkish Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan resigned, concluding a stormy year as the first Islamic leader of the modern republic.
1999 - The Group of Seven industrialized nations agreed during a summit in Cologne to a plan to cancel $70 billion in debts owed by poor countries.
2002 - In Israel, a Palestinian suicide bomber detonated himself on a bus in Jerusalem during the morning rush hour, killing 19 people and injuring over 50 others.
2003 - Finnish Prime Minister Anneli Jäätteenmäki resigned after using leaked state information regarding Iraq during the March 2003 parliamentary elections.
2003 - The Italian Parliament voted on a law granting Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi immunity from prosecution while in office.
2006 - The Episcopal Church in the United States elected Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as its first leader, marking an unprecedented step in the Anglican Church.
2010 - Portuguese Nobel Prize-winning author José Saramago passed away.
2011 - The first transatlantic flight was made using biofuel.
