1936 -- King George V of Britain died. His son succeeded him as Edward VIII but he abdicated later that year in order to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson.

1945 -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt was inaugurated for a record fourth term as president of the United States.

1973 - Dr. Amilcar Cabral, Guinea-Bissau nationalist leader, was assassinated in Conakry. He founded the African Independence party of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), the organization that fought Portuguese colonial rule.

1981 -- Ronald Reagan became president of the United States, two weeks shy of his 70th birthday making him the oldest to be inaugurated. On the same day, 52 Americans held hostage in their Tehran embassy for 444 days were released.

1984 -- Johnny Weissmuller, U.S. athlete and actor, died. An Olympic swimming champion, he later played Tarzan in 19 films.

1987 -- Terry Waite, the archbishop of Canterbury's special envoy, was kidnapped in Lebanon. He spent nearly five years in captivity.

1996 -- Palestinians voted for the first time in elections that consolidated PLO Chief Yasser Arafat's rule of the West Bank and Gaza.

2001 -- George W. Bush was inaugurated as the 43rd president after one of the closest and most contentious elections in U.S. history, in which he defeated vice president Al Gore.

2001 -- Vice president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo sworn in as president of the Philippines after the Supreme Court ruled that disgraced president Joseph Estrada was unfit to hold office.