1855 -- Nicholas I, tsar of Russia, died. His reign of autocracy and militarism ended with defeat in the Crimean War.

1877 -- A U.S. electoral commission finally declared Rutherford Hayes president, the only one to be elected this way. The original result had been too close to call, with several ballots in dispute.

1900 -- Kurt Julian Weill, German composer, born.

He collaborated closely with Bertold Brecht before he fled from the Nazis to America.

1917 -- Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicated and a provisional government under Georgy Lvov was formed.

1917 -- The Jones Act, establishing Puerto Rico as an American territory, was passed by the U.S. Congress.

1931 -- Mikhail Gorbachev, former president of the Soviet Union, born. He introduced the liberalizing reforms known as "Glasnost" and "Perestroika".

1943 -- The battle of the Bismark Sea began. Twelve Japanese ships carrying reinforcements to New Guinea were sunk by Allied planes, killing nearly 4,000.

1946 -- Ho Chi Minh was elected president of North Vietnam.

1956 -- France recognized Morocco's independence.

1969 -- The first of two prototype Concordes made its maiden flight from Toulouse.

1969 -- The first Soviet reports emerged that Chinese and Soviet troops had engaged in heavy fighting around Damansky Island, along their border.

1972 -- The U.S. spacecraft Pioneer 10 was launched. It passed close by Jupiter and Neptune before leaving the solar system. It was more than six billion miles from earth in 1997 when NASA stopped communicating with it.

1990 -- In South Africa, Nelson Mandela was elected deputy president of the African National Congress.

1995 -- Seven-time Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti was ordered to stand trial on charges of having been a member of the Mafia.

1996 -- Paul Keating's Labor Party suffered a massive defeat in Australian elections, ending 13 years of rule.

1999 -- Rwandan Hutu rebels killed eight of the 17 foreign tourists who were kidnapped the previous day and had gone to Uganda to track rare mountain gorillas. The rebels were later killed.