NOW & THEN

in West Africa opted for full independence.

Sweden voted in favour of joining the European Economic Community.

1983: Neil Kinnock became the leader of the Labour Party with a vote of just over 71 per cent.

1990: Reunification of East and West Germanys created Europe’s largest country.

1992: In South America’s worst prison riot, 111 prisoners died in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

2007: President Roh Moo-hyun of South Korea walked across the Military Demarcation Line into North Korea on his way to a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

2009: Police officers involved in the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, mistaking him for a suicide bomber, were told they would not face punishment.

1972: 2 Dutch spectaclemaker Hans Lippershey discovered the principle of the telescope when he saw a child playing with two lenses. He showed his first finished model on this day in 1608