Shimla, Sept. 12 Keekli Bureau
2014
Politician Ian Paisley—who was a militant Protestant leader in the factional conflict that divided Northern Ireland from the 1960s until the early 21st century—died in Belfast.
2003
Country music legend Johnny Cash—whose craggy baritone, simple poetics, hard-won integrity, and advocacy of the dispossessed transformed him into an American icon—died in Nashville.
1980
The senior command of the Turkish army, led by General Kenan Evren, carried out a bloodless coup in their homeland.
1977
South African activist Steve Biko died from injuries suffered while in police custody; he subsequently became an international martyr for South African Black nationalism.
1974
Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia was deposed by the Derg, a committee of revolutionary soldiers.
1959
The TV series Bonanza premiered on NBC, and it became one of the longest-running westerns in broadcast history.
1959
The Soviet Union launched Luna 2, the first space probe to hit the Moon.
1953
U.S. senator and future president John F. Kennedy married Jacqueline Bouvier in Newport, Rhode Island.
1943
German commandos effected the escape of Benito Mussolini to Munich during World War II.
1940
In Montignac, France, four teenage boys found the Lascaux cave, which contains one of the most outstanding displays of prehistoric art ever discovered.
1934
Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania signed the Treaty of Understanding and Cooperation, providing for mutual defense mainly against Nazi Germany, which had replaced the Soviet Union as the most likely aggressor against the Baltic states.
1919
Italian nationalist poet Gabriele D’Annunzio led an occupation of the Adriatic port city of Fiume (now Rijeka, Croatia), bringing to the forefront the Fiume question.
1814
The Genevan republic was admitted to the ranks of the Swiss cantons.
1733
Stanisław I was elected king of Poland by the Sejm (Diet) of 12,000 delegates in Warsaw; the move led to the War of the Polish Succession.
1683
The Siege of Vienna ended after a combined force led by John III Sobieski of Poland defeated the Turkish invaders.
