1926 – Sholom Schwartzbard assassinates Symon Petliuran, head of the government of the People’s Republic of Ukraine, which is in exile in Paris. Schwartzbard (of Jewish descent) was suspected of being a Soviet OGPU agent who was sent by the Kremlin to eliminate Petliuran. The latter was the leader of the Ukrainian nationalists, and who was often implicated in the expulsion of the Jews.
1953 – Born in Chacabuco, Daniel Passarella. Passarella is a former Argentine professional footballer who played as a center-back, and a former manager of Argentina and Uruguay’s national football teams. He was captain of the Argentine team that won the World Cup in 1978. In 2004, Passarella was named one of the 125 greatest footballers living in a FIFA Awards Ceremony.
1963 – The African Unity Organization is founded in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The African Unity Organization was an intergovernmental organization with 32 signatory governments. One of the main heads for the establishment of OAU was Kwame Nkrumah of Gana. It was disbanded on July 9, 2002, by its last chairman, South African President Thabo Mbeki, and replaced by the African Union (AU).
1973 – A captain and crew of the Greek Navy, Velos, revolt to protest against the dictatorship in Greece. Velos anchored in Fiumicino, Italy, refusing to return home. This revolt was one of the most important in the wake of the popular uprisings that would follow in the coming months, against the Military Junta of the Colonels, in Greece. The entire Velos crew would be granted political asylum in Italy.
1981 – A Gulf Cooperation Council is established in Riyadh, between Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The Gulf Cooperation Council is a regional, intergovernmental, political, and economic union of all the Arab states of the Persian Gulf except Iraq. All these current states are monarchies.
1995 – Kresimir Cosic dies at the age of 47. Cosic was a professional Croatian basketball player and coach. In 1996, Cosic became only the second international player ever selected at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He will be remembered as one of the legends of Yugoslav basketball and then Croatian basketball in Europe and in the world. Some of the teams that Cosic has debuted are Sinudyne Bologna and Cibona.
2012 – SpaceX Dragon becomes the first commercial spacecraft to successfully appear with the International Space Station. Dragon SpaceX, also known as Dragon 1, was a reusable spacecraft developed by SpaceX, a US private space transport company. The dragon was orbited by Falcon 9 to power the International Space Station (ISS).
