Through the will drawn up by Alfred Bernhard Nobel—the Swedish chemist, engineer, and industrialist who invented dynamite and other, more powerful explosives—the Nobel Prizes were established on this day in 1895.
| 1983: | | The revised Code of Canon Law, signed by Pope John Paul II in January, took effect. |
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| 1973: | | | The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly in favour of Gerald R. Ford's succession to the vice presidency. |
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| 1953: | | | Eugene O'Neill, playwright and author of Long Day's Journey into Night, died at age 65. |
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| 1942: | | The French navy scuttled 73 ships at Toulon in order to avoid German seizure. |
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| 1919: | | The Treaty of Neuilly, outlining the post-World War I peace terms for Bulgaria, was signed between the defeated country and the Allied powers. |
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| 1874: | | Chaim Weizmann, the first president of Israel and the guiding force behind the World Zionist Organization, was born. |
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