29 Aban 1383 | Friday 19 November 2004

This day in four calendars

636 (1390 years ago) The Rashidun Caliphate defeats the Sasanian Empire at the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah in Iraq.
1646 (380 years ago) The current Saint Peter's Basilica is consecrated in Rome, replacing an earlier basilica on the same site.
1946 (80 years ago) Afghanistan, Iceland and Sweden join the United Nations.
1969 (57 years ago) Apollo program: Apollo 12 astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean land at Oceanus Procellarum (the "Ocean of Storms") and become the third and fourth humans to walk on the Moon.
1979 (47 years ago) Iran hostage crisis: Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini orders the release of 13 female and black American hostages being held at the US Embassy in Tehran.
1985 (41 years ago) Cold War: In Geneva, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first time.
1988 (38 years ago) Serbian communist representative and future Serbian and Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević publicly declares that Serbia is under attack from Albanian separatists in Kosovo as well as internal treachery within Yugoslavia and a foreign conspiracy to destroy Serbia and Yugoslavia.
1993 (33 years ago) A factory fire killed 87 and injured 51 in Shenzhen, China.

1600 (426 years ago) Charles I of England, Scotland, and Ireland (died 1649)
1711 (315 years ago) Mikhail Lomonosov, Russian physicist, chemist, astronomer, and geographer (died 1765)
1831 (195 years ago) James A. Garfield, American general, lawyer, and politician, 20th President of the United States (died 1881)
1888 (138 years ago) José Raúl Capablanca, Cuban-American chess player and theologian (died 1942)
1917 (109 years ago) Indira Gandhi, Indian politician, 3rd Prime Minister of India (died 1984)
1933 (93 years ago) Larry King, American journalist and talk show host (died 2021)
1954 (72 years ago) Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Egyptian field marshal and politician, 6th President of Egypt
1962 (64 years ago) Jodie Foster, American actress, director, and producer

496 (1530 years ago) Pope Gelasius I,
498 (1528 years ago) Pope Anastasius II,
1665 (361 years ago) Nicolas Poussin, French-Italian painter (born 1594)
1828 (198 years ago) Franz Schubert, Austrian pianist and composer (born 1797)
2013 (13 years ago) Frederick Sanger, English biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1918)
2014 (12 years ago) Mike Nichols, German-American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1931)
2017 (9 years ago) Charles Manson, American cult leader and mass murderer (born 1934)
2023 (3 years ago) Rosalynn Carter, American mental health activist, First Lady of the United States (1977–1981), and of Georgia (1971–1975) (born 1927)