1912 -- Japanese Emperor Meiji died and was succeeded by Yoshihito. During Meiji's reign Japan was transformed into one of the modern world's great powers.

1945 -- The U.S. cruiser Indianapolis was sunk by a Japanese submarine killing over 800.

1949 -- The British warship Amethyst made its escape down the Yangtze River, having been refused a safe passage by Chinese Communists after a three-month standoff.

1966 -- England beat Germany 4-2 at Wembley to win the soccer World Cup.

1971 -- Apollo 15 crew members David Scott and James Irwin landed on the moon.

1971 -- A Japanese Boeing 727 collided with a jet fighter over Shizukuishi, killing 162 people.

1975 -- A summit conference on European security opened in Helsinki attended by leaders of 35 nations including U.S. President Gerald Ford and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.

1980 -- The Franco-British South Pacific condominium of New Hebrides achieved independence as the Republic of Vanuatu.

1993 -- Bosnia's Moslems, Serbs and Croats agreed at Geneva peace talks to create a new "union" of three ethnic republics.

1996 -- Claudette Colbert, queen of 1930's Hollywood comedies, died at 92.

1999 -- The U.S. military officially closed its Panama operations, leaving its headquarters on the banks of the Panama Canal after a presence of nearly a century.

2001 -- Canada became the first country in the world to allow terminally ill patients to grow and smoke their own marijuana, overriding protests from doctors.

2002 -- The presidents of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo signed a peace pact aimed at ending Africa's biggest war and years of atrocities in the turbulent Great Lakes region.

2005 -- John Garang, Sudan's First Vice-President who signed a deal in January to end Africa's longest civil war, died in a helicopter crash.