Elizabeth II passes Victoria as Britain's longest-reigning monarch (2015), and North Korea is established as a separate state (1948). Born on this day: Leo Tolstoy, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Dennis M. Ritchie. Died: Mao Zedong, William I and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
29 events, 74 births and 63 deaths on this date.
Elizabeth II overtook Queen Victoria to become the British monarch with the longest reign. She had been on the throne since 1952, and her reign would continue until her death in 2022.
Original: Joel Rouse/ Ministry of Defence Derivative: nagualdesign · OGL 3The Soviet-aligned Democratic People's Republic of Korea was proclaimed in the north, one of two rival governments set up on the peninsula after Japan's defeat and the division along the 38th parallel. Its creation hardened the split that would lead to the Korean War two years later.
As the Soviet Union was breaking apart, Tajikistan declared itself a sovereign state, ending its status as a Soviet republic. The move set the country on a path that soon included a civil war lasting until 1997.
The city being built for the new federal government received its name from the commissioners in charge of construction. They chose it to honour George Washington, the nation's first president, who had picked the site.
It entered the Union as a free state under the Compromise of 1850, just two years after the land passed from Mexico to the United States. A gold rush starting in 1848 had already drawn a flood of newcomers to the region.
Columbus left Cadiz with 17 ships and about 1,200 men, a far larger fleet than his first crossing, aiming to build on his earlier landfall and establish settlements. The expedition marked the start of Spain's rapid colonisation of the Caribbean.
Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio · Public domain
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Russian novelist who wrote War and Peace and Anna Karenina, later becoming a influential advocate of nonviolent resistance. His ideas shaped thinkers such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii · Public domain
Yudhoyono is a retired army officer who served as Indonesia's sixth president from 2004 to 2014, winning the country's first direct presidential vote. He negotiated a settlement with rebels in Aceh, ending decades of fighting and earning him the nickname Father of Peace.
Government of Indonesia · Public domain
Dennis Ritchie was an American computer scientist who, with Ken Thompson, helped create the Unix operating system. He also designed the C programming language, which shaped much of the software written since.
Denise Panyik-Dale · CC BY 2.0
Mao Zedong led the Chinese Communist Party to power in 1949 and ruled the People's Republic of China until his death. He is remembered for the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, campaigns that caused enormous suffering.
Chen Zhengqing (1917–1966) · Public domain
William I was the Norman duke who invaded England in 1066 and beat Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings. He then ruled England as its first Norman king, putting down English revolts until his death.
Myrabella · Public domain
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was a French painter and poster artist who captured the nightlife of Belle Époque Paris, from cabarets and dancers to brothels. Born into the aristocracy, he broke both legs as a teenager and spent much of his short life working in the city's bohemian quarters.
Paul Sescau · Public domain
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