Solar 154

Luciano Pavarotti

Martin Manley, journalist who committed suicide on his 60th birthday after 14 months of planning - and launched a detailed blog about it on the same day

Peter Mandelson

Lance Armstrong

‘D. B. Cooper’ hijacks a Boeing 727 aircraft in the USA, extorts $200,000 in ransom (equivalent to $1,160,000 in 2014), and parachutes to an uncertain fate. Despite an extensive manhunt (the most extensive, and intensive search operation, in U.S. history) and an ongoing FBI investigation, the perpetrator has never been located or positively identified. Two weeks prior to this incident, Paul Cini tried to hijack a plane for money, but was overpowered by the crew when he put down his gun to strap on the parachute. There were 15 copycay hijackings in the following year.

Halifax Explosion: Two freighters collide in Halifax Harbour at Halifax, Nova Scotia and cause a huge explosion that kills at least 1,963 people, injures 9,000 and destroys part of the city (the biggest man-made explosion in recorded history until the Trinity nuclear test in 1945)

The Miracle of the Sun (Portuguese: O Milagre do Sol) was an event attended by some 30,000 to 100,000 people who were gathered near Fátima, Portugal. Several newspaper reporters were in attendance and they took testimony from many people who claimed to have witnessed extraordinary solar activity

The Samaritans receives its first telephone call

Fall of Berlin wall

Start of the Russian Civil War, in which 5 million to 9 million died

Labor Day Hurricane of 1935: The strongest hurricane ever to strike the United States landfalls in the Upper Florida Keys as a Category 5 storm with 185 mph winds, killing 423