This day in history:
- 1597 – The last battle of the Cudgel War takes place on the Santavuori Hill in Ilmajoki, Ostrobothnia.
- 2008 – Fidel Castro retires as the President of Cuba and the Council of Ministers after 32 years. He remained as head of the Communist Party for another three years.
- 1809 – London's Drury Lane Theatre burns to the ground, leaving its owner, Irish writer and politician Richard Brinsley Sheridan, destitute.
- 1875 – The SS Gothenburg hits the Great Barrier Reef and sinks off the Australian east coast, killing approximately 100, including a number of high-profile civil servants and dignitaries.
Births:
- 1965 – Jane Swift, American businesswoman and politician, Governor of Massachusetts
- 1954 – Plastic Bertrand, Belgian singer-songwriter and producer
- 1962 – Kelly Craft, American businesswoman and diplomat
Deaths:
- 951 – Liu Yun, Chinese governor (jiedushi)
- 1721 – John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby, English poet and politician, Lord President of the Council (b. 1648)
- 1974 – Margaret Leech, American historian and author (b. 1895)
Holidays:
- Engineer's Day (Iran)
- Sweden Finns' Day (Sweden)
- Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Estonia from the Russian Empire in 1918; the Soviet period is considered to have been an illegal annexation.
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