1999: Nato calls off air war on Kosovo
Nato suspends its 11-week aerial war on Kosovo as Serb troops begin to withdraw

1959: Hovercraft marks new era in transport
The Hovercraft invented by Christopher Cockerell is officially launched in Southampton.

Election of Boris Yeltsin
On this day in 1991, Boris Yeltsin was easily elected president of Russia (then part of the Soviet Union) in the republic's first direct, popular elections, and he was president of independent Russia until the eve of 2000.

1865 Irish poet, dramatist, and prose writer William Butler Yeats—one of the greatest English-language poets of the 20th century and the winner of the 1923 Nobel Prize for Literature—was born.

First prisoners at Auschwitz
On this day in 1940, the first transport of Polish political prisoners arrived at Auschwitz, which became Nazi Germany's largest concentration, extermination, and slave-labour camp, where more than one million people died.

Magna Carta sealed by King John
Magna Carta—a charter of English liberties that occupies a unique place in the popular imagination as a symbol and a battle cry against oppression—was sealed this day, under threat of civil war, by King John in 1215.

1963: Soviets launch first woman into space
Valentina Tereshkova, a former textile worker from the Soviet Union becomes the first woman in space

Arrest of O.J. Simpson
On this day in 1994, American gridiron football hero O.J. Simpson was charged with the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman, though after a sensational trial he was acquitted the following year.

War of 1812 begun
On this day U.S. President James Madison signed a declaration of war against Great Britain, initiating the War of 1812, which arose chiefly from U.S. grievances over oppressive maritime practices during the Napoleonic Wars.

1963 Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman to travel in space, returned to Earth in the spacecraft Vostok 6.

1995: Shell makes dramatic U-turn
Oil giant Shell caves in to international pressure and abandons plans to dump the Brent Spar oil rig at sea.

2009 Greenland became self-governing as an expanded home-rule agreement with Denmark took effect.

1941: Hitler invades the Soviet Union
The German Army takes the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin by surprise as it begins a massive advance on Moscow.

Battle of Bannockburn
On this day in 1314 began the Battle of Bannockburn, a decisive engagement in Scottish history whereby the Scots defeated the English, regained their independence, and established Robert the Bruce as Robert I.

Russia invaded by Napoleon and his Grand Army
On this day in 1812, French Emperor Napoleon—who had massed his troops in Poland in the spring to intimidate Russian Tsar Alexander I—and 600,000 troops of his Grand Army launched an ill-fated invasion of Russia.