- 1990 – The U.S. Food & Drug Administration approved Norplant, a long-acting contraceptive implant.
- 1991 – The play Revival “The Crucible” opened.
- 1992 – Oregon Senator Bob Packwood apologized for what he called “unwelcome and offensive” actions toward women. However, he refused to resign.
- 1993 – The crew of the space shuttle Endeavor deployed the repaired Hubble Space Telescope into Earth’s orbit.
- 1994 – Advertising executive Thomas Mosser of North Caldwell, NJ, was killed by a mail bomb that was blamed on the Unabomber.
- 1994 – Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin received the Nobel Peace Prize. They pledged to pursue their mission of healing the Middle East.
- 1995 – The first U.S. Marines arrived in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo to join NATO soldiers sent to enforce peace in the former Yugoslavia.
- 1996 – South Africa’s President Mandela signed into law a new democratic constitution, completing the country’s transition from white-minority rule to a non-racial democracy.
- 1998 – Six astronauts opened the doors to the new international space station 250 miles above the Earth’s surface.
- 1998 – The Palestinian leadership scrapped constitutional clauses that rejected Israel’s existence.
- 1999 – After three years under suspicion of being a spy for China, computer scientist Wen Ho Lee was arrested. He was charged with removing secrets from the Los Alamos weapons lab. Lee later pled guilty to one count of downloading restricted data to tape and was freed. The other 58 counts were dropped.
- 2003 – The U.S. Supreme Court upheld new restrictions on political advertising in the weeks before an election. The court did strike down two provisions of the new law that involved a ban on political contibutions from those too young to vote and a limitation on some party spending. (McConnell v. FEC, 02-1674)
- 2003 – The U.S. barred firms based in certain countries, opponents of the Iraq war, from bidding on Iraqi reconstruction projects. The ban did not prevent companies from winning subcontracts.
- 2007 – Cristina Fernandez was sworn in as Argentina’s first elected female president.
- 2014 – Palestinian minister Ziad Abu Ein was killed after the suppression of a demonstration by Israeli forces in the village (Turmus’ayya) in Ramallah.
- 2016 – Two explosions outside a football stadium in Istanbul, Turkey, kill 38 people and injure 166 others.
- 2017 – ISIL is defeated in Iraq.
- 2019 – The Ostrava hospital attack in the Czech Republic results in eight deaths, including the perpetrator.
Celebrating Birthday Today
- 1981 – Taufik Batisah, Singaporean singer
- 1981 – Fábio Rochemback, Brazilian footballer
- 1982 – Claudia Hoffmann, German sprinter
- 1982 – Sultan Kösen, Turkish farmer, tallest living person
- 1983 – Lewis Buxton, English footballer
- 1983 – Habib Mohamed, Ghanaian footballer
- 1983 – Xavier Samuel, Australian actor
- 1984 – Mark Applegarth, English rugby player
- 1985 – Charlie Adam, Scottish footballer
- 1985 – Matt Forte, American football player
- 1985 – T. J. Hensick, American ice hockey player
- 1985 – Trésor Mputu, Congolese footballer
- 1985 – Raven-Symoné, American actress, singer, and dancer
- 1985 – Lê Công Vinh, Vietnamese footballer
- 1986 – Matthew Bates, English footballer
- 1986 – Kahlil Bell, American football player
- 1987 – Gonzalo Higuaín, French-Argentinian footballer
- 1988 – Wilfried Bony, Ivorian footballer
- 1988 – Mitchell Donald, Dutch footballer
- 1988 – Neven Subotić, Serbian footballer
- 1989 – Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, French politician
- 1989 – Tom Sexton, Australian-Irish rugby player
- 1990 – Kazenga LuaLua, Congolese-English footballer
- 1990 – Sakiko Matsui, Japanese singer and actress
- 1990 – Terrell Sinkfield, American football player
- 1990 – Shoya Tomizawa, Japanese motorcycle racer (d. 2010)
- 1991 – Eric Reid, American football player
- 1991 – Dion Waiters, American basketball player
- 1994 – Richard Kennar, Samoan rugby league player
- 1994 – Matti Klinga, Finnish footballer
- 1996 – Joe Burrow, American football player
- 1996 – Kang Daniel, South Korean singer
- 1997 – Viktoriia Savtsova, Ukrainian Paralympic swimmer