MORE EVENTS ON THIS DAY

2018: American investor and philanthropist Paul Allen, who cofounded Microsoft, died at age 65. [Test your knowledge of tech companies.]

2003: China became the third country to launch a crewed spaceflight; Shenzhou 5, which was piloted by Yang Liwei, orbited Earth 14 times during the 21-hour flight. [ Take our famous astronauts and cosmonauts quiz.]

1993: South Africans Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk were named the recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize “for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa.” [How much do you know about the Nobel Prize?]

1987: A military coup in Burkina Faso overthrew head of state Thomas Sankara, killing him and eight others. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about Africa.]

1969: President Cabdirashiid Cali Shermaʾarke (Abdirashid Ali Shermarke) of Somalia was assassinated. [Test your knowledge of African leaders.]

1966: Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party, the mission of which was to protect African Americans from police brutality; it later developed into a Marxist revolutionary group that, among other things, called for the arming of all African Americans and the release of Blacks from jail. [ Learn the answers to five FAQs about the Black Panther Party.]