1858 – Charles Darwin first published his theory of evolution in The Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, alongside Alfred Russel Wallace's same theory.
1882 – Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture debuted in Moscow.
1940 – Exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky was fatally wounded with an ice axe by Ramon Mercader in Mexico.
1978 - A 29 year old airline stewardess, Irit Gidron, died during an attack on a bus carrying Israelis in central London. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) later said it had carried out the attack.
1986 – U.S. Postal employee Patrick Sherrill gunned down 14 of his co-workers and then commited suicide in In Edmond, Oklahoma.
1988 – A cease-fire was agreed between Iran and Iraq, after almost eight years of war.
1989 – The pleasure boat Marchioness sank on the River Thames, in London, following a collision. 51 people were killed.
1991 – Estonia seceded from the Soviet Union.