Argentine politician Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was sworn into office as Argentina’s first female elected president; she succeeded her husband, Néstor Kirchner. [Test your knowledge of other famous firsts for women.]

Chilean General Augusto Pinochet, whose dictatorial reign (1974–90) in Chile was marked by the murder and torture of political opponents, died while facing charges of human rights abuses. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about Chile.]

American comedian and actor Richard Pryor, who revolutionized comedy with his frank and controversial style, died at age 65. [Watch author Scott Saul discuss his book Becoming Richard Pryor.]

President Nelson Mandela signed a new constitution that completed a transition from a long period of white minority rule (apartheid) to full-fledged democracy in South Africa. [How much do you know about African leaders?]

A treaty codifying the Law of the Sea was signed by 117 countries.

Otis Redding, who was one of the great soul stylists of the 1960s, died in an airplane crash. [Test your knowledge of musicians.]

Lawrence of Arabia, which was directed by David Lean and starred Peter O’Toole as T.E. Lawrence, had its world premiere. It became one of the most celebrated epics in the history of cinema. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about film.]

The General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about world organizations.]

Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf became the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature, cited for “the lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterize her writings.” [Discover how someone wins a Nobel Prize.]

The first Nobel Prizes were distributed, marking the fifth anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish industrialist and inventor of dynamite, who founded and endowed the awards through his will. [Read our list of seven Nobel Prize scandals.]

Representatives of Spain and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris, concluding the Spanish-American War. [Take our history of war quiz.]

Mark Twain’s classic novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was first published, appearing in the United Kingdom and Canada; it was released in the United States the following year. [Test your knowledge of literary characters.]

Melvil Dewey, who devised the Dewey Decimal Classification for library cataloging and was largely responsible for the development of library science in the United States, was born in Adams Center, New York.

Ada Lovelace, who is often considered the first computer programmer, was born in what is today London. [Test your knowledge of computers and technology.]

The first part of the first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, the oldest English-language general encyclopaedia, was published and advertised for sale in Edinburgh.

Pope Julius II, the Holy Roman emperor Maximilian I, Louis XII of France, and Ferdinand II of Aragon formed the League of Cambrai. [How much do you know about European history?]

Michael V Calaphates ascended the throne of the Byzantine Empire following the death of Michael IV. [Take our quiz about kings and emperors.]