1967 – American physicist Theodore Maiman is given a patent for his ruby laser systems, the world’s first laser.
1969 – Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 12, the second crewed mission to the surface of the Moon.
1971 – Mariner 9 enters orbit around Mars.
1978 – France conducts the Aphrodite nuclear test as 25th in the group of 29, 1975-78 French nuclear tests.
1982 – Lech Wasa, the leader of Poland’s outlawed Solidarity movement, is released after eleven months of internment near the Soviet border.
2001 – War in Afghanistan: Afghan Northern Alliance fighters take over the capital Kabul.
2003 – Astronomers Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz discover 90377 Sedna, a Trans- Neptunian object.
2008 – The first G-20 economic summit opens in Washington, D.C.
2012 – Israel launches a major military operation in the Gaza Strip, as hostilities with Hamas escalate. 2016 – A magnitude 7.8 earthquake strikes Kaikoura, New Zealand, at a depth of 15 km (9 miles), resulting in the deaths