Hitler orders suspension of the T4 euthanasia programme (1941), and Ukraine declares independence from the Soviet Union (1991). Born on this day: Jorge Luis Borges, Yasser Arafat and Paulo Coelho. Died: Pliny the Elder, Getúlio Vargas and Richard Attenborough.
30 events, 80 births and 71 deaths on this date.
Hitler halted the T4 scheme, which had murdered mentally ill and disabled people in institutions across Germany. The killings did not stop, however; they simply went on in secret until the end of the war.
Unknown author Unknown author · CC BY-SA 3.0 deUkraine's parliament voted to break away from the Soviet Union, months before the USSR collapsed entirely. Ratified by a referendum in December, the declaration set the country on its path as a sovereign state.
Drug traffickers announced an all-out campaign against the state, escalating a conflict between organised crime and the government. The declaration deepened the violence tied to the drug trade across the country.
Steve Jobs, who co-founded Apple and returned to run it in 1997, gave up the chief executive's job. He died only weeks later, and his work shaped many of the company's best-known products.
MetalGearLiquid , based on File:Steve_Jobs_Headshot_2010-CROP.jpg made by Matt Yohe · CC BY-SA 3.0
Gorbachev gave up the leadership of the Communist Party, a post he had held since 1985. It marked a sharp break from the one-party system that had governed the Soviet Union for decades.
Leo Medvedev/Лев Леонидович Медведев · CC BY-SA 4.0
Crews began placing concrete for the canal, part of one of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken. The 82-kilometre waterway links the Caribbean and Pacific, letting ships avoid the dangerous voyage round South America's southern tip.
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Argentine writer whose short stories, such as those in Ficciones and El Aleph, explore labyrinths, mirrors, infinity and invented authors. He became a major influence on fantasy writing and on Latin American magical realism.
Grete Stern · Public domain
Arafat was a Palestinian leader who chaired the PLO from 1969 and later headed the Palestinian Authority. He is remembered as the central figure of the Palestinian national movement for decades, and as a co-founder of Fatah.
Gideon Markowiz · CC BY 4.0
Brazilian novelist and lyricist, still writing today. He is best known for The Alchemist, a 1988 novel about a shepherd's quest that has become an international best-seller.
Lula Oficial · CC BY-SA 2.0
Roman commander and writer whose thirty-seven-volume Natural History became a model for later encyclopedias. He died at Stabiae while trying to rescue people during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
Geoffrey · Public domain
Vargas dominated Brazilian politics for a quarter of a century, ruling as dictator and later as elected president. He took his own life in 1954 as pressure mounted to resign over a scandal around his bodyguards.
Governo do Brasil · Public domain
Richard Attenborough was an English actor who also directed and produced films, winning Oscars for Gandhi. He was also the first actor to originate a role in Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap, which became London's longest-running play.
gdcgraphics at https://www.flickr.com/photos/gdcgraphics/ · CC BY 2.0
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