1903 Innovation of the aeroplane

1956 Dutch swimmer Cockie Gastelaars broke two decades' world record for 100m freestyle

1965 United States President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law

1767 King Taksin was crowned King of Thailand (Siam)

1895 German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen discovered X-Rays

1964 Kenya became a republic

1863 President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation

1945 International Monetary Fund was formally established by 29 member countries

1876 Innovation of the telephone

1993 Czechoslovakia was divided into two independent states

1814 Innovation of the steam locomotive (engine)

1994 The implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement

1945 The United Nations was officially established

1901 Guglielmo Marconi sent and received the first wireless message across the Atlantic Ocean

1949 Queen Juliana of the Netherlands signed the papers to grant independence to Indonesia

1997 The United Kingdom returned Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China