1967 - The Soviet Venera 4 spacecraft entered the atmosphere of Venus and transmitted data back to earth before losing contact 27 km (17 miles) above the surface.

1970 - The body of Pierre Laporte, Quebec province's minister of labour, was found following his kidnap and murder by the Quebec Liberation Front.

1977 - Three Palestinian hijackers were killed when a German squad stormed a Lufthansa aircraft at Mogadishu airport. all 86 passengers held hostage for five days were freed.

1982 - Bess Truman, wife of former u.s. president Harry Truman, died.

1982 - Pierre Mendes-France, French prime minister 1954-55, died. He oversaw the end of French involvement in the war in Indochina but was defeated in 1955 over the Algerian rebellion.

1988 - The British government banned broadcast interviews with groups expressing support for violence in Northern Ireland, provoking opposition charges it was handing a propaganda coup to the outlawed Irish Republican Army.

1989 - East German leader Erich Honecker stepped down, officially on health grounds, and was replaced by Egon Krenz.

1989 - Hungary's parliament purged the constitution of its Stalinist elements to create a western-style basic law for a return to multi-party democracy.

1994 - The United States and North Korea, after a month of gruelling negotiations, agreed a framework deal on recasting Pyongyang's nuclear energy programme.

1995 - One of britain's best loved racehorses and triple grand national winner, Red Rum, died at 30 and was buried by the winning post of the world's most famous steeplechase.

1998 - Taiwan envoy Koo Chen-fu crowned a six-day visit to China by meeting president Jiang Zemin, the highest-level contact between the two sides since 1949.

1998 - At least 700 people died in an inferno which engulfed people scavenging for petrol from a burst pipeline in southern Nigeria.

1999 - Pakistan was suspended from the Commonwealth following a military coup there.

2000 - Opposition lawmakers in the Philippines started impeachment proceedings against president Joseph Estrada, saying he took millions of dollars in bribes from gambling lords.

2000 - The U.S. senate approved legislation allowing sales of food and medicine to Cuba, a landmark change in the four-decade-old embargo of the island.