EVENTS:
- 1945 – Sukarno takes office as the first president of Indonesia, following the country’s declaration of independence the previous day.
- 1958 – Vladimir Nabokov’s controversial novel Lolita is published in the United States.
- 1958 – Brojen Das from Bangladesh swims across the English Channel in a competition, as the first Bangali and the first Asian to do so. He came first among 39 competitors.
- 2005 – A massive power blackout hits the Indonesian island of Java, affecting almost 100 million people, the one of the largest and most widespread power outages in history.
- 2008 – President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf resigns under threat of impeachment.
- 2017 – The first terrorist attack ever sentenced as a crime in Finland kills two and injures eight.
- 2019 – One hundred activists, officials, and other concerned citizens in Iceland hold a funeral for Okjökull glacier, which has completely melted after having once covered six square miles (15.5 km2).
BIRTHS:
- 1870 – Hugh Bromley-Davenport, England cricketer (d. 1954)
- 1908 – Bill Merritt, New Zealand cricketer (d. 1977)
- 1920 – Godfrey Evans, English cricketer (d. 1999)
- 1923 – Jenni Irani, Indian-Pakistani cricketer (d. 1982)
- 1923 – Sadashiv Shinde, Indian cricketer (d. 1955)
- 1932 – Luc Montagnier, French virologist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1956 – Sandeep Patil, Indian cricketer and coach
- 1979 – Stuart Dew, Australian footballer
- 1980 – Preeti Jhangiani, Indian actress
- 1988 – Jack Hobbs, English footballer
- 1999 – Cassius Stanley, American basketball player
HOLIDAYS and OBSERVANCES:
- Long Tan Day, also called Vietnam Veterans’ Day (Australia)
- National Science Day (Thailand)
- Armed Forces Day (Macedonia)
