The Emu War

The Australian government officially surrendered on this day in 1932 after a monthlong battle against thousands of large flightless birds.1932. 

Argentine politician Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was sworn into office as Argentina‘s first female elected president; she succeeded her husband, Néstor Kirchner. 2007. 

Chilean General Augusto Pinochet, whose dictatorial reign (1974–90) in Chile was marked by the murder and torture of political opponents, died while facing charges of human rights abuses. 2006. 

President Nelson Mandela signed a new constitution that completed a transition from a long period of white minority rule (apartheid) to full-fledged democracy in South Africa. 1996. 

Otis Redding, who was one of the great soul stylists of the 1960s, died in an airplane crash. 1967. 

The General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 1948. 

The first Nobel Prizes were distributed, marking the fifth anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish industrialist and inventor of dynamite, who founded and endowed the awards through his will. 1901. 

Representatives of Spain and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris, concluding the Spanish-American War. 1898. 

Ada Lovelace, who is often considered the first computer programmer, was born in what is today London. 1815. 

Michael V Calaphates ascended the throne of the Byzantine Empire following the death of Michael IV. 1041.