5 Aban 1381 | Sunday 27 October 2002

This day in four calendars

1275 (751 years ago) Traditional founding of the city of Amsterdam.
1914 (112 years ago) World War I: The new British battleship HMS Audacious is sunk by a minefield laid by the armed German merchant-cruiser Berlin.
1924 (102 years ago) The Uzbek SSR is founded in the Soviet Union.
1944 (82 years ago) World War II: German forces capture Banská Bystrica during Slovak National Uprising thus bringing it to an end.
1964 (62 years ago) Ronald Reagan delivers a speech on behalf of the Republican candidate for president, Barry Goldwater. The speech launches his political career and comes to be known as "A Time for Choosing".
1991 (35 years ago) Turkmenistan achieves independence from the Soviet Union.
2017 (9 years ago) Catalonia declares independence from Spain.
2019 (7 years ago) Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant founder and leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi kills himself and three children by detonating a suicide vest during the U.S. military Barisha raid in northwestern Syria.

1782 (244 years ago) Niccolò Paganini, Italian violinist and composer (died 1840)
1858 (168 years ago) Theodore Roosevelt, American colonel and politician, 26th President of the United States, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1919)
1914 (112 years ago) Dylan Thomas, Welsh poet and playwright (died 1953)
1932 (94 years ago) Sylvia Plath, American poet, novelist, and short story writer (died 1963)
1939 (87 years ago) John Cleese, English actor, comedian, screenwriter and producer
1945 (81 years ago) Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazilian union leader and politician, 35 and 39th President of Brazil
1952 (74 years ago) Roberto Benigni, Italian actor, director, and screenwriter
1952 (74 years ago) Francis Fukuyama, American political scientist, economist, and author

939 (1087 years ago) Æthelstan, English king
1449 (577 years ago) Ulugh Beg, Persian astronomer, mathematician and sultan (born 1394)
1605 (421 years ago) Akbar, Mughal emperor (born 1542)
1968 (58 years ago) Lise Meitner, Austrian-English physicist and academic (born 1878)
2010 (16 years ago) Néstor Kirchner, Argentinian lawyer and politician, 51st President of Argentina (born 1950)
2013 (13 years ago) Lou Reed, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor (born 1942)
2019 (7 years ago) Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL); suicide (born 1971)
2023 (3 years ago) Li Keqiang, premier of China (born 1955)