1916 -- Sir William Ramsay, Scottish chemist, Nobel Prize winner and discoverer of helium, argon and other inert gases, died.

1948 -- D W Griffith, American director of the silent film epics Birth of a Nation and Intolerance, died.

1951 -- Marshal Philippe Petain died in prison. A French army marshal and hero of World War I, he headed the Vichy government that collaborated with the Nazi German occupiers in France from 1940-44, for which he was sentenced to life in jail.

1952 -- An army coup led by General Neguib overthrew and banished King Farouk in Egypt.

1955 -- Cordell Hull, U.S. secretary of state (1933-44), died. He was awarded the 1945 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in organizing the United Nations.

1974 -- Greek armed forces chiefs invited Constantine Karamanlis to return from exile in Paris and form a civilian government.

1982 -- The International Whaling Commission voted for a total ban on commercial whaling, to take effect in 1985.

1997 -- Slobodan Milosevic stepped down as Serbia's president and was sworn in as Yugoslavia's federal head of state.

1999 -- Morocco's King Hassan died of a heart attack after 38 years in power and was succeeded by his son, Mohammed.

1999 -- The Walt Disney cartoon Tarzan was shown in the United States by filmless projection systems and thus became the first ever film to be produced and shown entirely using digital technology.

2001 -- Sri Lanka's only international airport, north of Colombo, was forced to close by a Tamil Tiger attack in which 18 people were killed and 13 planes destroyed or damaged.

2001 -- The Pulitzer Prize-winning U.S. novelist Eudora Welty, author of The Optimist's Daughter, who made her mark on American literature with short stories and novels set mainly in Mississippi, died aged 92.

2002 -- Salah Shehada, leader of the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic movement Hamas, was killed in an Israeli missile strike on his home in Gaza. Fourteen other Palestinians including nine children were also killed and 145 were injured. THOUGHT

Deceiving one who has confidence in you, is infidelity.

[Imam Ali (AS)]