Reuters
1907 - New Zealand becomes dominion within British Empire.
1937 - American blues singer Bessie Smith died after a car crash.
1997 - Mafia boss Salvatore Riina and 23 of his closest associates were jailed for life for the 1992 killing of prosecutor Giovanni Falcone.
2000 - Large-scale protests and rioting in Prague during IMF and World Bank meeting.
2002 - Senegalese ferry the Joola capsized off the Gambian coast. Only 64 people survived and 1,863 people drowned.
2006 - American golfing great Byron Nelson, who won an unprecedented 11 successive PGA Tour events during 1945, died at the age of 94.
2007 - Judge declares a mistrial in murder trial of pioneering rock music producer Phil Spector.
2009 - Thousands of people marooned in Manila by tropical storm Ketsana.
2010 - British model Naomi Campbell marks 25 years in the fashion industry.
2011 - Opening statements in trial of singer Michael Jackson's doctor Conrad Murray.
2014 - Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft launches carrying International Space Station crew including the first Russian woman to serve on the space outpost.
