On this day in 1857, Queen Victoria selected Ottawa as the capital of the British colony of Canada.

On this day in 1963, the Central African Federation officially collapsed, eventually to become Zambia, Malawi and Rhodesia.

On this day in 1972, American baseball player Roberto Clemente died in a plane crash en route to deliver aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.

On this day in 1999, Boris Yeltsin, the first democratically elected President of Russia, resigned and named Vladimir Putin as Acting President.