Person report

★20 Jun 1960
The Mali Federation gained independence from France, but lasted only two months before dividing into Senegal and Mali.

★02 Mar 1962
American basketball player Wilt Chamberlain, then playing for the Philadelphia Warriors, scored 100 points in a game against the New York Knicks, still a record in the National Basketball Association today.

★09 Oct 1962
Nick Holonyak, an engineer for General Electric, gave the first public demonstration of a light-emitting diode.

★20 Feb 1965
NASA's Ranger 8 spacecraft successfully transmitted 7,137 photographs of the Moon in the final 23 minutes of its mission before crashing into Mare Tranquillitatis.

★24 Jan 1966
Air India Flight 101, en route to London from Bombay, crashed into Mont Blanc in France, killing all 117 people on board.

★09 Aug 1974
On the verge of impeachment and removal from office amidst the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon became the first President of the United States to resign his office.

★20 Jun 1979
The execution of Bill Stewart, an American journalist, by Nicaraguan Guardia forces, was captured on tape, resulting in the rapid withdrawal of support for the Somoza regime by the United States.

★30 Apr 1982
Sixteen monks and a nun belonging to Ananda Marga in Calcutta, India, were dragged out of taxis by persons unknown in three different locations, beaten to death and then set on fire.

★13 Mar 1988
The Seikan Tunnel, the longest and deepest tunnel in the world at the time, opened between the cities of Hakodate and Aomori, Japan.

★01 Dec 1988
Four armed men hijacked a bus carrying thirty schoolchildren and one teacher in Ordzhonikidze, Soviet Union, and were later given an Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft and ransom in exchange for the release of the hostages.

Historical data by Wikipedia Contributors CC BY-SA 3.0.