1805: Battle of Trafalgar: British Admiral Horatio Nelson defeats the combined French and Spanish fleet. Nelson is shot and killed during the battle.

1854: Florence Nightingale, with a staff of 38 nurses, is sent to the Crimean War

1944: US troops capture Aachen, the first large German city to fall in World War II

1948: UN rejects Russian proposal to destroy atomic weapons

1950: Chinese Communist forces occupy Tibet

1966: 116 children and 28 adults die as a coal waste heap slides and engulfs a school in Aberfan, South Wales

1993: A failed military coup in Burundi led by ex-President Jean-Baptiste Bagaza, causes 525,000 Hutus to flee and the assassination of President Melchior Ndadaye

Source: Onthisday.com