1497
Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama rounds Cape of Good Hope on way to first voyage from Europe to reach India
1914
Indian troops take Basra in Mesopotamia
1926
Imperial Conference ends, giving autonomy inside British Commonwealth
1928
British King George confined to bed with congested lung; Queen to take over duties.
1963
American President John F. Kennedy assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas
1968
Lok Sabha passed notification to change the name of Madras state as Tamil Nadu.
1969
Isolation of a single gene announced by scientists at Harvard University
1971
Indian and Pakistan governments protested violations of national airspace along the western border, but aerial conflict between the respective air arms began, preceding full-scale warfare between India and Pakistan by 12 days.
1997
Diana Hayden, 24-year-old Mumbai-born Miss India, beat 85 contestants from around the world to be crowned new ‘Miss Universe’ at Mahe in Seychelles.
2005
Angela Merkel becomes the first female Chancellor of Germany
