PHOTO CREDITS- WIKIPEDIA/INTERNET ARCHIVE

1989 Protesting students take over Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China.

1978 The Afghanistan revolution begins.

1975 Saigon is encircled by North Vietnamese troops.

1961 The United Kingdom grants Sierra Leone independence.

1950 South Africa passes the Group Areas Act, formally segregating races.

1941 The Greek army capitulates to the invading Germans.

1937 German bombers of the Condor Legion devastate Guernica, Spain.

1927 Coretta Scott King, civil rights activist, wife of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

1909 The Sultan of Turkey, Abdul Hamid II, is overthrown.

1904 Cecil Day-Lewis, Irish poet, father of actor Daniel Day-Lewis.

1900 Walter Lantz, cartoonist, creator of Woody Woodpecker.