On this day in 1965, a group of 600 civil rights marchers was brutally attacked by state and local police in Selma, Alabama.
On this day in 1985, the song "We Are the World" received its international release.
On this day in 1989, Iran and the United Kingdom broke diplomatic relations after a row over Salman Rushdie and his novel, The Satanic Verses.
On this day in 2007, the British House of Commons voted to make the upper chamber, the House of Lords, 100% elected.
And on this day in 2009, the Kepler space observatory, designed to discover Earth-like planets orbiting other stars, was launched.