| On this date in: |
| 1718 | English pirate Edward Teach - better known as "Blackbeard" - was killed during a battle off the Virginia coast. |
| 1890 | Charles de Gaulle was born in Lille, France. |
| 1906 | The SOS distress signal was adopted at the International Radio Telegraphic Convention in Berlin. |
| 1928 | "Bolero" by Maurice Ravel debuted in Paris. |
| 1943 | President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek met in Cairo to discuss measures for defeating Japan. |
| 1967 | The U.N. Security Council approved Resolution 242, which called for Israel to withdraw from territories it captured in 1967, and implicitly called on adversaries to recognize Israel's right to exist. |
| 1968 | The Beatles' "White Album" was released. |
| 1975 | Juan Carlos was proclaimed king of Spain. |
| 1977 | Regular passenger service between New York and Europe on the supersonic Concorde began on a trial basis. |
| 1980 | Actress Mae West died at age 87. |
| 1990 | British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, having failed to win re-election to the Conservative Party leadership on the first ballot, announced her resignation. |
| 1998 | The CBS News program "60 Minutes" aired videotape of Dr. Jack Kevorkian administering lethal drugs to a terminally ill patient. |
| 2004 | Tens of thousands of demonstrators jammed downtown Kiev, denouncing Ukraine's presidential runoff election as fraudulent and chanting the name of their reformist candidate, Viktor Yushchenko. |
| 2005 | Jose Padilla, an American once accused of plotting with al-Qaida to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb," was charged with supporting terrorism. (He was later convicted and sentenced to 17 years, four months in prison.) |
| 2005 | Angela Merkel took power as Germany's first female chancellor. |
| 2005 | Ted Koppel hosted his final edition of ABC News' "Nightline." |
