1789. George Washington was inaugurated the first President of the United States.

1803. France sold Louisiana and adjoining lands to the United States.

1939. US commercial TV made its official debut at the New York World's Fair. The signal was transmitted from the Empire State Building.

1945. Adolf Hitler committed suicide in a Berlin bunker by shooting himself.

1952. The Diary of a Young Girl, written by Anne Frank who hid from the Nazis in Holland during the war, was published in English.

1973. President Richard Nixon takes responsibility for the Watergate scandal but denied any personal involvement.

1975. The Vietnam War ended when the South surrendered unconditionally to the North.

1991. Over 131,000 were killed and as many as nine million left homeless when a cyclone struck Bangladesh.

1993. The world number one women's tennis player, Monica Seles, was stabbed in the back by a German spectator during a quarter-final match in Hamburg.

2003. Libya accepted responsibility for the 1998 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.