1920 - Adolf Hitler's Nazi movement outlined its program for creating a Third German Reich.

1938 - Nylon was produced for the first time, in Arlington, New Jersey. It was used for toothbrush bristles.

1945 - Egyptian prime minister Ahmed Maher Pasha was shot dead in Parliament immediately after reading a declaration of war on Germany and Japan.

1946 - Juan Peron was elected president of Argentina.

1966 - Ghana's president Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown in an army coup.

1974 - Pakistan recognized Bangladesh as an independent country.

1975 - Nikolai Bulganin, Soviet prime minister from 1955-58, died.

1991 - The Persian Gulf war ground campaign began with an allied night attack. More than 14,000 Iraqis were captured in the first 24 hours of fighting.

1994 - Syria granted exit visas to all 1,000 Syrian Jews still living in the country, allowing them to travel abroad if they wished.

1996 - Islamic revolutionaries killed 27 people and wounded 77 in two revenge bombing attacks in Israel.

2000 - The UN Security Council authorized a 5,500-member force to monitor a shaky cease-fire in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The UN is not just a product of do-gooders. It is harshly real. The day will come when men will see the UN and what it means clearly. (Dag Hammarskjold)