Today in History

1901 — American automaker Henry Ford enters his first and last automobile race and wins.

1911 — Revolutionaries under Sun Yat-sen overthrow China's Manchu dynasty.

1964 — Tokyo Olympic Games, the first held in Asia, begin.

1970 — Fiji gains independence after a century of British rule.

1986 — El Salvador earthquake kills more than 1400 people.

1993 — Socialist Andreas Papandreou returns to power in Greek elections.

2000 — Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the world's first woman prime minister, dies in Sri Lanka.

2005 — Angela Merkel becomes the first woman to serve as Germany's Chancellor.

2006 — Two bombs explode in insurgency-torn southern Philippines, killing six people.

2017 — Liberia holds historic election for the first time in more than 70 years.