1906 -- An earthquake struck San Francisco. The quake and resulting fires devastated the city, leaving over 200,000 people homeless and some 1,000 dead.

1934 -- The first launderette, the "Washateria", was opened at Fort Worth, Texas, by J.F. Cantrell.

1946 -- The League of Nations dissolved itself and all its assets were handed over to the United Nations.

1955 -- Albert Einstein, German-born scientist and mathematician, died. He formulated the theory of relativity and won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921.

1968 -- London Bridge was sold to American Robert McCullough for one million pounds. It was later re-erected in Arizona.

1980 -- The former British colony of Rhodesia gained legal independence as Zimbabwe.

1983 -- A suicide bomb shattered the U.S. embassy in Beirut, killing at least 63 people.

1996 -- More than 100 Lebanese refugees were killed when Israeli artillery shells ripped into a crowded UN peacekeepers base where they were sheltering.

2002 -- Former king Mohammed Zahir Shah returned home to Afghan capital Kabul after 29 years in exile.

2002 -- Three people were killed and dozens injured when a small Piper tourist plane crashed into the 127 meter Pirelli building in Milan.

2004 -- Modern Fiji's founding father Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara died after a paralytic stroke. He was 83.

2005 -- Basil Fuleihan, the former Lebanese economy minister who was badly burnt in the blast that killed ex-premier Rafik al-Hariri earlier in the year, died at a Paris hospital.