On this day in 1976, Hua Guofeng became Mao Zedong's successor as chairman of Communist Party of China, following the latter's death barely a month earlier.
On this day in 1987, Sikh nationalists declared the independence of Khalistan from India; it was not internationally recognized.
On this day in 1998, Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, was found tied to a fence after being savagely beaten by two young adults in Laramie, Wyoming.
On this day in 2001, the Global War on Terrorism began as a result of the September 11 attacks. The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan initiated with an air assault and covert operations on the ground.