2012 – The brand-new Sukhoi Superjet 100 plane crashes
The regional jet was the first airliner produced in Russia since the end of the USSR in 1991. The doomed flight was a demonstration tour carrying potential customers. All 45 people on board perished in the crash, which was caused by pilot error.
1997 – Pete Peterson becomes the first U.S. ambassador to visit Vietnam after the end of the war
Peterson, a Vietnam veteran, devoted himself to promoting reconciliation between the two countries. About 2.5 million Vietnamese, most of them civilians, were killed during the war.
1979 – Iranian Jewish businessman Habib Elghanian is executed
An Islamic revolutionary tribunal had convicted him of “contacts with Israel and Zionism” and “friendship with the enemies of God”. His execution triggered a Jewish mass exodus from Iran.
1969 – Carlos Lamarca begins his fight against Brazil's military dictatorship
Lamarca was a member of the communist organization Vanguardia Popular Revolucionária (VPR) and is well known for his urban guerilla actions. Brazilian forces killed him in 1971.
1960 – The first birth control pill is approved
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that it would add birth control as a new indication for the drug “Enovid”.
1949 – Billy Joel
American singer-songwriter, pianist
1934 – Alan Bennett
English actor, screenwriter, author
1921 – Sophie Scholl
German student, activist
1837 – Adam Opel
German engineer, founded the Opel Company
1800 – John Brown
American activist
2012 – Vidal Sassoon
English/American hairdresser
1986 – Tenzing Norgay
Nepalese mountaineer
1976 – Ulrike Meinhof
German journalist, activist
1805 – Friedrich Schiller
German poet, playwright, historian
1707 – Dieterich Buxtehude
German/Danish organist, composer
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