1917 -- British and Indian troops marched into Baghdad in World War I, capturing 9,000 Turkish prisoners.

1941 -- The U.S. Congress passed the Lend-Lease Bill, enabling Britain to borrow money to buy food and arms during World War II.

1955 -- Sir Alexander Fleming, Scottish bacteriologist who discovered penicillin in 1928, died.

1973 -- Hector Campora won the first presidential election to be held in Argentina since 1965.

1985 -- Mikhail Gorbachev became head of the Soviet Union after the death of Konstantin Chernenko. At 54, he was the youngest member of the ruling Politburo.

1990 -- Lithuania's parliament proclaimed the restoration of the Baltic republic's pre-World War II independence from the Soviet Union, the first Soviet republic to break away.

2001 -- Zapatista Subcommander Marcos and 23 rebel leaders made a triumphant entry into Mexico City after a 12-state march from their jungle hideout in their campaign for Indian rights.

2002 -- The Bosnian Serb Democratic Party replaced its founder Radovan Karadzic as president with Dragan Kalinic and insisted it had turned over a new leaf.

2003 -- Libya reached political agreement with the U.S. and Britain to accept civil responsibility for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and pay $10 million each to victims' families.

2004 -- Simultaneous bomb blasts ripped through four packed commuter trains in Madrid, killing 191 people in one of Europe's bloodiest guerrilla attacks.

2005 -- Almost all Syrian troops left north Lebanon, ending an unbroken 29-year presence and underlining Syria's diminishing role in its small neighbor.