1887 - Emile Berliner filed for a patent for his invention of the lateral-cut, flat-disk gramophone. It is a device that is better known as a record player. Thomas Edison made the idea work.
1923 - About 100,000 people were killed when an earthquake hit Tokyo and Yokohama, Japan.
1939 - World War II began when Germany invaded Poland.
1951 - The ANZUS Treaty, a mutual defense pact, was signed by the U.S., Australia and New Zealand.
1969 - Col. Moammar Gadhafi came into power in Libya after the government was overthrown.
1985 - The Titanic was found by Dr. Robert Ballard and Jean Louis Michel in a joint U.S. and French expedition.
1998 - Vietnam released 5,000 prisoners, including political dissidents, on National Day.