Highlights in history on this date:

641 - An army commanded by Amr Ibn al-As conquers Egypt for Islam by seizing the fort of Babylon in the Nile Delta. Alexandria capitulates the following November.

1241 - Mongol horsemen under Batu Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, defeat Teutonic Knights at Liegnitz, Silesia.

1454 - The Italian states of Milan, Florence and Venice sign the Peace of Lodi, recognising each other's status.

1483 - Death of King Edward IV of England, who led the Yorkists and became king after defeating the Lancastrians at Mortimer's Cross in 1461.

1553 - Death of French writer Francois Rabelais, whose works included the satirical masterpiece Gargantua and Pantagruel.

1609 - Spain signs nine-year truce with Holland.

1626 - Death of English writer and statesman Francis Bacon. He was conducting experiments on his theory that keeping meat frozen would keep it fresh. He was stuffing chickens with ice, caught a cold and died.

1691 - French forces capture Mons in Belgium.

1783 - Tippoo of Mysore forces British to surrender Bednore.

1865 - Confederate General Robert E Lee capitulates to Union General Ulysses S Grant, ending US Civil War.

1866 - US Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1866 over the veto of President Andrew Johnson. It gave blacks the rights of citizenship and was the basis for the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution.

1869 - Hudson's Bay Company agrees to cede its territorial rights to Canada.

1928 - Islam is no longer recognised as state religion in Turkey.

1939 - African-American singer Marian Anderson performs a concert at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC after being denied use of Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution.

1940 - German forces invade Norway and Denmark in World War II.

1942 - Japanese aircraft sink and destroy the RAN's HMAS Vampire and aircraft carrier HMS Hermes off the coast of Sri Lanka. Ten crew die.
1942 - American-Filipino forces on Bataan surrender to Japanese.

1945 - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German theologian and anti-Nazi, is executed in Flossenburg concentration camp; he was arrested in 1943 over a plot to assassinate Hitler.

1949 - United Nations International Court of Justice delivers its first decision, holding Albania responsible for incidents in Corfu Channel and awarding Britain damages.

1959 - NASA announces the selection of the first seven US astronauts: Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard and Donald Slayton.

1960 - South African Prime Minister Dr Hendrik Verwoerd is wounded in assassination attempt.

1963 - British statesman Winston Churchill is made an honorary US citizen.

1966 - Italian film star Sophia Loren touches off a scandal when she marries director Carlo Ponti, who still has a wife in Italy.

1970 - Paul McCartney seeks a High Court writ to wind up the Beatles business partnership, effectively ending the group's career.

1971 - Jordan's King Hussein accepts Syrian proposal to end two weeks of fighting with Palestinian guerrillas in Jordan.

1974 - India, Pakistan and Bangladesh sign agreement to repatriate 195 Pakistani prisoners of war.

1977 - The Spanish Communist Party is legalised after a 38-year ban.

1978 - Loyal troops in Somalia crush attempted coup by army officers.

1981 - IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands wins a seat in the British parliament in the Fermanagh and South Tyrone by-election in Northern Ireland.

1983 - The US space shuttle Challenger ends its first mission with a safe landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

1986 - West Berlin expels two Libyan diplomats and says it has "several indications" Libya is behind bombing of Berlin discotheque.

1988 - China's National Peoples Congress names Li Peng as premier.

1989 - Wayne Gardner wins inaugural Australian 500cc motorcycle Grand Prix at Phillip Island, Victoria.

1990 - A three-decade ban on political activity is lifted in Nepal, and hundreds of thousands celebrate.

1990 - The Hungarian Democratic Forum sweeps to power in elections after 40 years of communism.

1991 - The UN Security Council establishes a 1440-member peacekeeping force to monitor the Iraq-Kuwait border and the withdrawal of US forces from southern Iraq.

1991 - Georgia declares its independence from the Soviet Union.

1992 - Sali Berisha is elected as Albania's first non-communist president since World War II.

1995 - President Alberto Fujimori wins a second five-year term in Peru's first peaceful election since 1980.

1996 - Rebels in Monrovia, Liberia, hold hundreds of foreigners hostage after days of fighting and looting.

1997 - An Iraqi passenger jet carrying Muslim pilgrims flies from an air base just outside Baghdad to Saudi Arabia in defiance of UN sanctions.

1998 - Some 150 Muslims are trampled to death in a stampede in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on the last day of the annual hajj pilgrimage.

1999 - Niger President Ibrahim Bare Mainassara is assassinated by his personal guard unit. The guard commander declares himself the new president two days later.

2000 - Sinn Fein dismisses British demands for a start to Irish Republican Army disarmament.

2001 - American Airlines parent AMR Corp closes its $US742 million ($A1.39 billion) purchase of bankrupt Trans World Airlines, forming the world's largest airline.

2002 - The funeral of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother is held in London's Westminster Abbey.

2003 - US-led forces take control of Baghdad, the Iraqi capital.

2004 - Death of former Burma president Sein Lwin, known as the Butcher of Rangoon, at the age of 81.

2005 - Haitian police shoot and kill Remissain the Ravix, a prominent rebel leader who helped force former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide into exile the previous year.

2006 - Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer denies UN accusations his department was involved in alleged kickbacks paid by the country's monopoly wheat exporter to Saddam Hussein's regime.

2007 - Iran announces a dramatic expansion of uranium enrichment, saying it has begun operating 3000 centrifuges in defiance of UN demands it halt the program or face increased sanctions.

2009 - Britain's top counter-terror police officer resigns after he was photographed carrying clearly visible secret documents about an operation against an alleged al-Qaeda plot by Pakistani nationals to launch an attack in Britain.

2010 - Russia threatens to suspend all child adoptions by US families after a seven-year-old boy adopted by an American woman was sent alone on a one-way flight back to Moscow with a note saying he was violent and had severe psychological problems.

2011 - Thousands of demonstrators barricade themselves in Cairo's central square with burned-out troop carriers and barbed wire and demand the removal of the military council ruling Egypt, infuriated after soldiers stormed their protest camp overnight, killing at least one person and injuring 71 others.

2012 - Syrian forces open fire across two tense borders, killing a TV journalist in Lebanon and wounding at least six people in a refugee camp in Turkey on the eve of a deadline for a ceasefire plan that seems all but certain to fail.

2013 - Al-Qaeda's branch in Iraq and the most powerful rebel group in Syria have officially joined ranks against President Bashar Assad to forge a potent militant force in the Middle East.

2014 - Ocean Shield detects underwater signals consistent with black boxes, believed to be from MH370; President Vladimir Putin turns up the heat on Ukraine by threatening to demand advance payment for gas supplies, a move designed to exert economic pressure on Kiev as it confronts possible bankruptcy.