1998
America Online (AOL) announced that it was buying Netscape Communications for $10 billion.
1998
The British Government unveiled plans to abolish the rights of hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords.
1993
Death of Albert Collins, American blues guitarist, singer and songwriter .
1993
Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, both aged 11, were convicted of murdering 2-year-old James Bulger, Liverpool, UK.
1989
Following a week of protests the entire leadership of the Communist Party in Czechoslovakia resigned
1958
Death of Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, British lawyer, politician and diplomat, one of the architects of the League of Nations.
1929
Death of Georges Clemenceau, Prime Minister of France (191720), one of the chief architects of the Treaty of Versailles peace agreement
1859
Birth of Cass Gilbert, American architect who designed the Woolworth Building in New York and the US Supreme Court in Washington DC
1859
British naturalist Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, which explained his theory of evolution
1642
Abel Janszoon Tasman discovers Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania)
1542
The Rout of Solway Moss