in Berlin, important German naturalist and geographer Baron Friedrich Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt is born. As the founder of plant geography, which was at the centre of his interests, he travelled all of Central and South America and the mountains of the Urals and Altai. He is considered the pioneer of modern geography and related disciplines.
In 1812, French Emperor Napoleon I. Bonaparte with his military forces entered Moscow, but the Russians during their withdrawal burnt everything, thus making it impossible for Napoleon's army to spend the winter there.
In 1959, the Soviet spacecraft Luna 2 as the first man-made product of its kind crashes on the Moon. Sensors indicate that the Moon is surrounded by a magnetic field or radiation belts. The spacecraft carried a metal plate with communist symbols - the hammer and sickle.
In 1960, at a meeting of representatives of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in Baghdad an agreement was passed on the establishment of OPEC, which is based in Vienna.
In 1982, Grace Kelly, Academy award-winning actress and Princess of Monaco dies in a car accident. She was the first actress whose face appeared on postage stamps.
MUSIC HISTORY
1974 - Eric Clapton takes the No. 1 spot on the American charts with 'I Shot The Sheriff'.
1974 - Stevie Wonder is at the top of the American charts with his album 'Fulfillingness First Finale'.
1991 - Paul Young is at the top of the British albums chart with 'From Time To Time-The Singles Collection'.
BORN ON THIS DAY
1959 - Morten Harket, singer in the group A-Ha (1985 'Take On Me').
1983 - Amy Winehouse, British singer. She died in 2011 (2006 'Rehab').