1. On this day in 1510 – The
Portuguese naval forces under the command of Afonso de Albuquerque, and local
mercenaries working for privateer Timoji, occupied Goa from the Bijapur
Sultanate resulting in 451 years of Portuguese colonial rule.
2. On this day in 1799 – The
metric system was adopted in France. Thus, France became the first country to
do so.
3. On this day in 1901 - The
first Nobel Prizes were awarded.
4. On this day in 1948 - The
United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. Every year this day is celebrated as the International Human Rights Day
across the world.
5. On this day in 1968 - Japan's
biggest heist occurred, it is the still-unsolved "300 million yen
robbery".
6. On this day in 1976 – The
United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Prohibition of
Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques.
7. On this day in 1998 - Indian
Professor Amartya Sen was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for his
contributions to welfare economics. Welfare Economics is a branch of economics
that uses microeconomic techniques to evaluate well-being (welfare) at the
aggregate (economy-wide) level.
8. On this day in 2013 – Uruguay
became the first country to legalize the growth, sale, and use of marijuana.
Marijuana is a preparation of the cannabis plant intended for use as a
psychoactive drug and as medicine.
