Today:
1886: A powerful earthquake strikes Charleston, South Carolina, leading to the deaths of 60 people.
1888: The body of Mary Ann Nichols, believed to be the first victim of Jack the Ripper, is discovered in London, England.
1897: Thomas Edison is granted a patent for the Kinetograph, a pioneering motion picture camera.
1920: The first radio news broadcast is transmitted by station 8MK in Detroit, Michigan.
1957: The Federation of Malaya, now known as Malaysia, declares its independence from Great Britain.
1962: Trinidad and Tobago achieves its independence from the United Kingdom.
1991: Kyrgyzstan declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
1994: Russia officially completes the withdrawal of its troops from Estonia and Latvia.
1997: Diana, Princess of Wales, is fatally injured in a car crash in Paris, France.
2006: Norwegian police recover the famous painting “The Scream” by Edvard Munch, which had been stolen two years earlier.