1586-Sir Thomas Herriot introduces potatoes to England from Colombia
1854-Eureka Stockade: In what is claimed by many to be the birth of Australian democracy, more than 20 goldminers at Ballarat, Victoria, are killed by state troopers in an uprising over mining licences
1967-South African surgeon Dr. Christiaan Barnard performs the world's first human-to-human heart transplant, on Louis Washkansky, at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town; he survives for 18 days
1971-India invades West Pakistan claiming hundreds of lives and starting the full scale Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
1984-Bhopal disaster: A Union Carbide pesticide plant leaks 45 tons of methyl isocyanate and other toxic compounds in Bhopal, India, officially killing 2,259 - other estimates are as high as 16,000 (including later deaths) and over half a million injured
1989-Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and US President George H. W. Bush, declare the Cold War over
1992-U.N. Security Council passes Resolution 794 authorizing US led allied forces to intervene in war-torn Somalia to restore order and allow humanitarian aid to be delivered