ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1889 The Coca-Cola Company, then known as the Pemberton Medicine Company, is incorporated in Atlanta.

1937 Spanish Civil War: Nationalists and Republicans both withdraw after suffering heavy losses, ending the Second Battle of the Corunna Road.

1943 World War II: the Soviet counteroffensive at Voronezh begins.

1947 The Black Dahlia murder: the dismembered corpse of Elizabeth Short was found in Los Angeles.

1949 Chinese Civil War: the Communist forces take over Tianjin from the Nationalist Government.

1966 The First Nigerian Republic, led by Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, is overthrown in a military coup d’état.

1969 The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 5. 1970 Muammar Gaddafi is proclaimed premier of Libya.

1981 Pope John Paul II receives a delegation from Solidarity (Polish trade union) at the Vatican, led by Lech Wałęsa.

1975 The Alvor Agreement is signed, ending the Angolan War of Independence and giving Angola independence from Portugal.

1976 Gerald Ford’s would-be assassin, Sara Jane Moore, is sentenced to life in prison.

1991 The UN deadline for the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from occupied Kuwait expires, preparing the way for the start of Operation Desert Storm.

2001 Wikipedia, a free wiki content encyclopedia, goes online.

2007 Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, former Iraqi intelligence chief and half-brother of Saddam Hussein, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former chief judge of the Revolutionary Court, are executed by hanging in Iraq.

2009 US Airways Flight 1549 ditches safely in the Hudson River after the plane collides with birds less than two minutes after take-off.

2013 A train carrying Egyptian Army recruits derails near Giza, Greater Cairo, killing 19 and injuring 120 others.

2016 The Kenyan Army suffers it worst defeat ever in a battle with Al-Shabaab Islamic insurgents in El-Adde, Somalia. An estimated 150 soldiers die. –