On this day in 1606, the first recorded performance of the play King Lear, a tragedy by William Shakespeare based on the legendary King Lear of the Britons, was held.
On this day in 1898, at the French Academy of Sciences, physicists Pierre and Marie Curie announced the discovery of a new element, naming it radium.
On this day in 1991, the Supreme Soviet officially dissolved itself, completing the dissolution of the Soviet Union.