Reagan calls for global ban on chemical weapons (1984), and France agrees to give the Mali Federation independence (1960). Born on this day: Maya Angelou, Robert Downey, Jr. and Heath Ledger. Died: Martin Luther King, Jr., William Henry Harrison and Karl Benz.
30 events, 69 births and 64 deaths on this date.
The US president urged all nations to outlaw poison gas and other chemical arms for good. Reagan, a former film actor, governed the United States from 1981 to 1989 and was a leading figure in the conservative movement.
Michael Evans · Public domainParis agreed to let the Mali Federation, a joint state of Senegal and French Sudan, become independent. The deal showed France loosening its hold on West Africa just as much of the continent was breaking free of colonial rule.
France said it would rejoin NATO's integrated military command, reversing the withdrawal Charles de Gaulle ordered in 1966. The move ended more than four decades of French separation from the alliance's command structure.
Finland formally became a full member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation once Turkey agreed to its application, ending decades of military non-alignment. The move reshaped the alliance's border with Russia, which runs for well over a thousand kilometres.
Napoleon stepped down as Emperor of the French, proposing his young son as his replacement. It was his first abdication, followed by a brief return to power in 1815.
Jacques-Louis David · Public domain
The top five slots on America's main singles chart all belonged to the Liverpool group, at the height of Beatlemania in the United States. That made the British Invasion of American pop impossible to ignore.
Bo Trenter · Public domain
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Maya Angelou was an American memoirist and poet whose first autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, brought her international acclaim. She was also a civil rights activist who worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.
York College ISLGP · CC BY 2.0
American actor best known for playing Tony Stark in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a role that revived his career after years of drug problems. He also won an Academy Award for Oppenheimer in 2023.
Gage Skidmore · CC BY-SA 2.0
Heath Ledger was an Australian actor whose intense, varied film work earned him an Academy Award, most famously for playing the Joker in The Dark Knight. He became a Hollywood name after the 1999 teen comedy 10 Things I Hate About You, and died in 2008, before that film was released.
Howie · CC BY-SA 2.0
Martin Luther King, Jr. was the American Baptist minister who led the civil rights movement through nonviolent protest, from the Montgomery bus boycott to the March on Washington. He was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968, aged 39, while supporting striking sanitation workers.
Associated Press · Public domain
Harrison died in office just 31 days after his inauguration, the first US president to do so. His death sent Vice President John Tyler into the role and settled a dispute over who should succeed a dead president.
James Lambdin · Public domain
Karl Benz is generally credited with building the first practical car, the Patent-Motorwagen, which he patented in 1886. His Mannheim firm, Benz & Cie., became the earliest automobile factory anywhere and later merged into Daimler-Benz.
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
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