1912 -- Silent film director Mack Sennett's first "Keystone Cops" film was released, Cohen Collects a Debt.

1932 -- Hijaz and Nejd and other districts were merged to form the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

1939 -- Sigmund Freud, Austrian psychiatrist and founder of psychoanalysis, died aged 83.

1952 -- Rocky Marciano became world heavyweight boxing champion when he knocked out champion Jersey Joe Walcott in 13 rounds in Philadelphia.

1973 -- Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet and diplomat, died. One of the most noted Spanish-language poets, he also served as consul to Burma, Argentina and Mexico.

1976 -- South Africa decided to allow multi-racial teams to represent the country in international sport.

1982 -- Amin Gemayel was sworn in as Lebanon's president to replace his brother Bashir, who was killed in a bomb explosion.

1990 -- Swiss citizens voted to ban the construction of nuclear power plants for the rest of the century but not to abandon nuclear power altogether.

1991 -- Armenia declared its independence from the Soviet Union.

1999 -- Indonesia said it was ending martial law in East Timor with immediate effect.

2001 -- In Poland the ex-Communist Party won in an election that condemned the Solidarity government to political oblivion, but failed to secure an absolute majority