1690: The colony of Massachusetts issued the first paper money in America

1807: A British military force, under Brig-Gen. Sir Samuel Auchmuty captured the city of Montevideo, then part of the Spanish Empire, now capital of Uruguay

1915: Turkish attempts to capture the Suez canal, vital to Allied shipping, were repulsed largely by Indian troops

1917: The United States broke off diplomatic relations with Germany, which had announced a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare

1930: The Communist Party of Vietnam was established

1939: The first group of Canadian volunteers from the Spanish Civil War return to Halifax. There is a great controversy over whether they should have even been allowed back in the country. By fighting in the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion the volunteers broke Canadian law prohibiting enlistment in foreign armies.

1942 - Port T, a top secret British naval base on Addu Atoll, in the Indian Ocean, becomes operational

1943: Bomber Command dispatched 263 aircraft against Hamburg. The weather proved most unfavourable. Many aircraft were forced to abort after encountering heavy icing over the North Sea. The Pathfinders attempted to use H2S radar for blind bombing marking over the city, but did not enjoy much success, and such aircraft of the Main Force as did find the target caused relatively little damage. 16 bombers failed to return, most victims of Luftwaffe nightfighters.

Australians forces lauched a counter-attack at Wau, having held it against repeated Japanese attacks, forcing them into retreat. At the end of the fighting some 1,200 Japanese had been killed as had some 300 Australians.

1944: United States warships shelled Paramushiru Island, the first navy attack on Japanese home territory

1967: Ronald Ryan, the last person to be executed in Australia, was hanged in Pentridge Prison, Melbourne.

1969: In Cairo, Yasser Arafat was appointed Palestine Liberation Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress

1989: After suffering a stroke, P.W. Botha resigned both party leadership and the presidency of South Africa