Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara is born (1928), and Chile signs the Buenos Aires copyright treaty (1955). Born on this day: Donald Trump, Che Guevara and Olaf Scholz. Died: Jorge Luis Borges, Max Weber and Salvatore Quasimodo.
33 events, 54 births and 62 deaths on this date.
Ernesto Guevara, known as Che, would become a central figure of the Cuban Revolution and a global symbol of rebellion. As a medical student he travelled across South America and was shaken by the poverty he saw, an experience that shaped his radical politics.
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domainChile formally joined the Buenos Aires convention, a multilateral agreement that set common rules for protecting authors' works across the signatory states of the Americas. It meant Chilean creators could expect their rights to be recognised in neighbouring countries too.
Brazil withdrew from the League of Nations in protest at being denied a permanent seat on its council, a grievance that exposed the League's weaknesses. The move marked a sharp break from the international body that had been set up to keep the peace after the First World War.
Pennsylvania became the only US state to make Flag Day an official state holiday, a gesture of patriotism that set it apart from the rest of the country. The day marks the adoption of the Stars and Stripes in 1777, and the state's move was a notable, if lonely, step in honouring the national flag.
Duke Henry the Lion established the settlement beside the Isar river, the place that would grow into Bavaria's capital. Its first recorded mention dates from this year, making it one of the older names in German urban history.
Kublai Khan's forces beat Nayan and other Borjigin princes who opposed his rule in East Mongolia and Manchuria. The win secured his grip on the eastern steppe and strengthened his hold over the wider Mongol world.
Araniko · Public domain
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Donald Trump was born into a wealthy New York family and went on to build a property and hotel empire before hosting The Apprentice. He later became the 45th and, from 2025, the 47th president of the United States, a role he holds for a second term.
Daniel Torok · Public domain
Argentine-born doctor who became a leading figure in the Cuban Revolution, helping to win the guerrilla war that toppled Fulgencio Batista in 1959. He later held government posts in Cuba before leaving to pursue armed revolution abroad, and was killed in 1967.
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
Olaf Scholz is a German Social Democrat who led the federal government as Chancellor from 2021 to 2025. Before that he was Finance Minister, Vice Chancellor and First Mayor of Hamburg, and he trained as a labour lawyer.
Nebojša Tejić · Public domain
Argentine writer whose short stories, such as those in Ficciones and El Aleph, explored labyrinths, mirrors, infinity and invented authors. He was also a librarian and a translator, and his work strongly shaped later Latin American fiction.
Grete Stern · Public domain
German scholar who helped shape modern sociology, best known for arguing that the Protestant work ethic helped give rise to capitalism. His unfinished book Economy and Society was left incomplete at his death.
Ernst Gottmann · Public domain
Salvatore Quasimodo was an Italian poet and translator whose lyrical verse won him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1959. He stands with Ungaretti and Montale as one of the defining Italian poets of the last century.
Nobel Foundation · Public domain
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