On This Day in History

Led by General Ne Win, the Burmese military seized power in a coup d'état.

Playing for the Philadelphia Warriors, American basketball player Wilt Chamberlain (pictured) scored 100 points in a game against the New York Knicks, which remains an NBA record.

Vietnam War: The American and South Vietnamese air forces began Operation Rolling Thunder, a sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnam that eventually became the most intense air–ground battle waged during the Cold War period.

The Sound of Music (poster pictured) was released in American theatres; it became the highest-grossing film until 1971.

The maiden flight of Concorde, the Anglo-French supersonic jet, was conducted in Toulouse, France using a prototype aircraft with the registration F-WTSS.

The Rhodesian monarchy was abolished by the government of Rhodesia, which declared the internationally unrecognised country to be a republic.

As a cosmonaut on Soyuz 28, Czechoslovak military pilot Vladimír Remek (pictured) became the first person from outside the Soviet Union or the United States to go into space.

Researchers at Fermilab in Illinois announced the discovery of the top quark, the most massive of all observed elementary particles.

The Oscar selfie, considered to be one of the most influential photographs of all time, was taken at the 86th Academy Awards ceremony.

A naming ceremony for the chemical elements moscovium, tennessine, and oganesson took place at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.

Russian forces captured the city of Kherson, the only regional capital to be taken during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.