On this day:
1970: Rhodesia declared itself an independent republic
1969: Concorde (the supersonic airliner) took off on its maiden flight
1946: Ho Chi Minh elected President of North Vietnam
Born on this day:
1968: Daniel Craig: English actor
1931: Mikhail Gorbachev: Soviet lawyer, politician, President of the Soviet Union, Nobel Prize laureate
Gone on this day:
1930: D. H. Lawrence: English novelist