EVENTS:
- 1609 – Henry Hudson reaches the river that would later be named after him – the Hudson River.
- 1933 – Elizabeth McCombs becomes the first woman elected to the New Zealand Parliament.
- 1948 – Deputy Primer Minister of India Vallabhbhai Patel ordered the Army to move into the Hyderabad to integrate it with Indian Union.
- 1953 – Nikita Khrushchev is appointed General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
- 1956 – The IBM 305 RAMAC is introduced, the first commercial computer to use disk storage.
- 1979 – South Africa grants independence to the “homeland” of Venda (not recognised outside South Africa).
- 2007 – The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.
- 2008 – Delhi, India, is hit by a series of bomb blasts, resulting in 30 deaths and 130 injuries.
- 2013 – Taliban insurgents attack the United States consulate in Herat, Afghanistan, with two members of the Afghan National Police reported dead and about 20 civilians injured.
BIRTHS:
- 1886 – Robert Robinson, English chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1975)
- 1887 – Leopold Ružička, Croatian-Swiss biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1976)
- 1909 – Ray Bowden, English footballer (d. 1998)
- 1940 – Óscar Arias, Costa Rican politician, President of Costa Rica, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1950 – Klaus Wunder, German footballer
- 1950 – Patsy Holland, English footballer and manager
- 1957 – Mal Donaghy, Irish footballer and manager
- 1968 – Brad Johnson, American football player
- 1969 – Shane Warne, Australian cricketer, coach, and sportscaster
- 1973 – Mahima Chaudhry, Indian actress
- 1976 – Craig McMillan, New Zealand cricketer
- 1980 – Viren Rasquinha, Indian field hockey player
- 1989 – Thomas Müller, German footballer
HOLIDAYS and OBSERVANCES:
- Programmers’ Day, during a non-leap year. (Russia and programmers around the world)
- International Chocolate Day
