1542.- Gonzalo Pizarro and Francisco de Orellana discover the Amazon River.
1571.- Benvenuto Cellini, Italian renaissance smith and sculptor, dies.
1668.- Spain recognizes the independence of Portugal through the Treaty of Lisbon.
1812.- Appears in Santiago “La Aurora”, the first Chilean newspaper, directed by Camilo Henríquez.
1837.- Mariano José de Larra, Spanish writer, dies.
1880.- Spain decrees the abolition of slavery in Cuba.
1883.- Richard Wagner, a German musician, dies.
1895.- The remains of the Chinese fleet capitulate to the Japanese.
1900.- The German Parliament ratifies the treaties with the island of Tonga and the Samoan Islands.
1904.- The first Constitution of the Republic is approved in Panama and Manuel Amador Guerrero takes office as president.
1910.- Six thousand Chinese soldiers, instructed by foreign officers, are indisciplined and loot Guangzhou.
1912.- The Chinese Imperial Government recognizes the Republic.
1917.- Mata-Hari is arrested by the French spy service at a paris hotel.
1929.- Omar Torrijos, Panamanian politician and military man, is born.
1933.- Kim Novak, American film actress, is born.
– Constantin Costa-Gavras, Greek-French film director, is born.
1945.- Anglo-American aviation bombs and destroys the German city of Dresden and kills 45,000 people during World War II.
1947.- The UN Security Council agrees on the establishment of a Global Disarmament Commission.
1950.- Peter Gabriel, British singer, is born.
1953.- The Yugoslav National Assembly approves a new Constitution.
1959.- Venezuelan President-elect Romulus Betancourt takes office.
1967.- Discovered in the National Library of Madrid a volume of almost 700 pages with handwritten annotations and hand drawings by Leonardo da Vinci.
1971.- Chilean President Salvador Allende decides to accept the constitutional reform that establishes the state’s dominance over all the country’s mining and fuel resources.
1974.- Soviet writer Alexander Solyenitsin is expelled from the USSR.
– Robbie Williams, British musician, is born.
1980.- David Janssen, American actor, dies.
1984.- The President of Panama, Ricardo de la Espriella, resigns, who is automatically replaced by Vice President Jorge Illueca.
– Constantin Chernienko is elected secretary general of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
1985.- Eduardo Carranza, Colombian poet and writer, dies.
2001.- A 6.6-magnitude earthquake on the Richter scale in El Salvador causes more than 300 deaths, 3,500 injured and several hundred thousand people affected.
2004.- The Mexican Government authorizes the Spanish bank BBVA to assume full control of Bancomer.
– The Greek and Turkish leaders of Cyprus accept the UN conditions to relaunch the process of reunification of the island.
2005.- Sister Lucia, A Portuguese religious, the last survivor of the children of Fatima, dies.
2007.- North Korea agrees to the closure and subsequent dismantling of its nuclear program in exchange for thousands of tons of fuel.
2008.- The screenwriters’ strike for film and television ends in the United States, after three months of unemployment.
2009.- The US Congress approves a $787 billion economic stimulus plan.
2010.- Operation “Moshtarak”, NATO’s largest military offensive since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, begins in Afghanistan.
2014.- The Bolivian Constitutional Vetoes the decriminalization of abortion.
– Belgium becomes the second country, after the Netherlands, to decriminalize euthanasia in minors.
Original source in Spanish
