On this day in 1933, during the Great Depression, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveiled the Civil Works Administration, an organization designed to create jobs for more than four million unemployed.
On this day in 1960, John F. Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections of the twentieth century to become the 35th president of the United States.
On this day in 1965, the death penalty was formally abolished in the United Kingdom.
And on this day in 2002, the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a resolution on Iraq, forcing Saddam Hussein to disarm or face "serious consequences".