On This Day in History

The Civil Rights Congress presented a document to the United Nations Genocide Convention charging the United States government with genocide against African Americans.

Harold Holt, the prime minister of Australia, disappeared while swimming near Portsea, Victoria; his body was never recovered.

Polish soldiers fired at workers (memorial pictured) emerging from trains in Gdynia, beginning the government's crackdown on mass anti-communist protests across the country.

The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated a car bomb outside Harrods in London, killing six people and injuring about 90 others.

American gay rights activist William E. Woods brought three same-sex couples to fill out marriage licenses in Honolulu.

Arab Spring: Mohamed Bouazizi, a street vendor in Sidi Bouzid, set himself on fire in protest against police harassment, triggering the Tunisian revolution.

The first victims of a mass methanol poisoning which eventually killed over 70 inhabitants of Irkutsk, Russia, began arriving at hospitals.