• 1556 - Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer was burnt at the stake.
• 1800 - Pius VII was crowned Pope in Venice with a temporary papal tiara made of papier-mГўchГ©.
• 1804 - Code NapolГ©on was adopted as French civil law.
• 1935 - Shah Reza Pahlavi formally asked the international community to call Persia by its native name, Iran, which means 'Land of the Aryans'.
• 1990 - Formerly known as South-West Africa, Namibia gained independence from South Africa, with Sam Nujoma swearing in as the first President.

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• Crips co-founder turned anti-gang activist Stanley Tookie Williams is executed by lethal injection in California.
• The Hertfordshire Oil Storage Terminal fire is extinguished after two days.
• A car bomb in Beirut, Lebanon kills anti-Syrian Member of the Lebanese Parliament and journalist Gebran Tueni.
• Racially-motivated mob violence continues for a second night in several suburbs of Sydney, Australia.
• The ConcertaciГіn alliance wins Chilean parliamentary elections, but the presidential election will go to a second round.

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