On this day in 1807: Influenced by the philanthropic Member of Parliament William Wilberforce, the British Parliament abolished the slave trade.
On this day in 1937: Chiang Ching-kuo of the Republic of China left Moscow for home, ending a 12-year stay in the Soviet Union.
On this day in 1997: Australia's parliament voted to overturn the world's only law allowing terminally ill patients to commit suicide with the help of a doctor.