Reagan signs secret order backing Contra rebels in Nicaragua (1981), and Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze resigns after weeks of protests (2003). Born on this day: Franklin Pierce, Nicolás Maduro and Miley Cyrus. Died: Roald Dahl, André Malraux and Il Bronzino.
29 events, 60 births and 61 deaths on this date.
The top secret directive let the CIA recruit and back rebels fighting Nicaragua's Sandinista government. It later became a central part of the Iran-Contra affair, the scandal over covert support for the rebels.
Michael Evans · Public domainEduard Shevardnadze stepped down as Georgia's president after weeks of mass demonstrations against an election widely seen as rigged. The protests, which became known as the Rose Revolution, helped bring a new generation of leaders to power.
Queen's lead singer revealed in a public statement that he had HIV, and he died the following day at his London home. His announcement brought the disease into sharp public focus and marked the end of one of rock's most celebrated careers.
Harding made it illegal for doctors to prescribe beer or liquor for medical use, tightening enforcement of Prohibition. The law closed a loophole that had let physicians supply alcohol to patients under the guise of treatment.
Copyright by Moffett, Chicago. J241772 U.S. Copyright Office. · Public domain
The Cocos (Keeling) Islands, a remote scatter of coral atolls in the Indian Ocean, passed from British control to Australian administration. Today they remain an Australian territory, mostly home to a community of Cocos Malays.
paullymac · CC BY-SA 2.0
Liberian voters chose Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as their president, making her the first woman elected to lead a country in Africa. She had earlier been sentenced to prison for criticising the military government, and had come second in the 1997 vote.
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Franklin Pierce was the 14th US president, serving from 1853 to 1857. His support for the Kansas–Nebraska Act and the Fugitive Slave Act alienated anti-slavery groups and deepened the North–South divide that led to the Civil War.
Mathew Benjamin Brady · Public domain
Nicolás Maduro is a Venezuelan politician who started out as a bus driver and union leader before rising to the presidency after Hugo Chávez's death. His time in office is widely criticised, with analysts later describing his government as a dictatorship.
Ricardo Stuckert · CC BY 2.0
Miley Cyrus is an American singer, songwriter and actress who became a teen idol as Miley Stewart in the Disney Channel series Hannah Montana. She later scored hits such as Wrecking Ball and Flowers, the best-selling single of 2023.
Raphael Pour-Hashemi · CC BY 2.0
Roald Dahl wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda and The BFG, children's books read by hundreds of millions. He flew as a fighter pilot with the RAF in the Second World War, and his short stories are known for unexpected endings.
Hans van Dijk for Anefo · CC BY-SA 3.0
French novelist and art theorist who wrote La Condition Humaine, which won the Prix Goncourt. He later became France's first minister of cultural affairs under Charles de Gaulle.
Roger Pic · Public domain
Italian Mannerist painter Agnolo di Cosimo, known as Il Bronzino, spent nearly his whole life in Florence. He served as court painter to Cosimo I de' Medici and is best remembered for the allegorical work Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time.
Sailko · CC BY 3.0
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