1890 - Princess Wilhelmina became Queen of the Netherlands at the age of 10 when her father William III died.
1943 - During World War II, U.S. forces seized control of Tarawa and Makin from the Japanese during the Central Pacific offensive in the Gilbert Islands.
1945 - The U.S. wartime rationing of most foods ended.
1979 - In Dublin, Ireland, Thomas McMahon was sentenced to life imprisonment for the assassination of Earl Mountbatten.
1994 - About 111 people, mostly women and children, were killed in a stampede after Indian police baton-charged tribal protesters in the western city of Nagpur.