On this day in 1909, Anglo-Irish explorer Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole.
On this day in 1920, the League of Nations held its first council meeting in Paris, France.
On this day in 1979, the last Iranian Shah fled Iran with his family for good and relocated to Egypt.
On this day in 1991, the Coalition Forces went to war with Iraq, beginning the Gulf War.
And on this day in 2006, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was sworn in as Liberia's new president. She became Africa's first female elected head of state.