These are some of the notable events to have happened on this date throughout history.

1789, New Jersey becomes the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights.

1805, The first performance of Ludwig van Beethoven's only opera Fidelio was staged in Vienna, Austria.

1818, Simon Bolivar declared Venezuela independent from Spain.

1902, Lord Tennyson, grandson of the English poet, was appointed governor general of Australia.

1910, Russian author Leo Tolstoy, who wrote War and Peace, died.

1924, The premiere of Darius Mihaud's ballet The Creation of the World was held in Paris.

1925, In Italy, a law was passed banning the Freemasons and other secret societies.

1925, In Britain, Danish-born Queen Alexandra died at Sandringham after a heart attack.

1926, The oldest colonies of the British Empire, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Newfoundland, were granted the status of self-governing dominions.

1929, Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dali held his first one-man show in Paris, France.

1944, In London, Piccadilly and the Strand were ablaze with light after five years of wartime blackout.

1945, The Nuremberg Trials started in Germany, with 24 senior Nazis tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The only one to plead guilty was Nazi architect Albert Speer.

1947, Britain's future Queen, Princess Elizabeth married Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh at London's Westminster Abbey.

1967, Casimir Funk, Polish-born American chemist who invented the word "vitamin" died aged 83.

1975, Spain's Fascist era came to an end with the death of Generalissimo Francisco Franco, victor of the Civil War and head of state since 1939.

1979, British Sir Anthony Blunt, surveyor of the Queen Elizabeth II's pictures, was stripped of his knighthood after admitting to spying for Russia.

1985, Microsoft Windows 1.0 is released.

1992, A fire breaks out in the Private Chapel room of England's Windsor Castle, rages for 15 hours and seriously damages the north west side of the building.

1995, In a British Broadcasting Corporation TV Panorama interview, Princess Diana admitted being unfaithful to Prince Charles.

2003, The Turkish head office of HSBC and the British consulate in Istanbul is bombed by terrorists.

2003, Michael Jackson is arrested on charges on child molestation.

2008, The Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its lowest level in 11 years.