Indian cricketer Virat Kohli scored his first century, in a one-day international match against Sri Lanka. [Explore the “home of cricket,” Lord’s Cricket Ground in London.]

Hijackers took control of Indian Airlines flight 814 and demanded that it be rerouted from New Delhi to Lahore. Days later, negotiations between the Indian government and the hijackers, who were linked a Pakistan-based Islamist group, resulted in an exchange of jailed militants for passengers being held hostage.

Japanese actor Mifune Toshirō, known internationally for his portrayals of samurai characters, especially in films directed by Kurosawa Akira, died near Tokyo. [Take our actors and acting quiz.]

The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan to aid the Afghan communist government in its conflict with anti-communist Muslim guerrillas during the Afghan War. [Take our history of war quiz.]

Stephenie Meyer—author of the popular Twilight Saga, a series of vampire-themed novels for teenagers—was born in Hartford, Connecticut. [Test your knowledge of famous vampires.]

Idris I became the first king of newly independent Libya. [Connect African leaders to their countries in our quiz.]

General Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force during World War II. [Sort fact from fiction in our World War II quiz.]

Admiral François Darlan, a leading figure in Marshal Philippe Pétain’s Vichy government, was assassinated in Algiers.

American manufacturer, aviator, and film producer Howard Hughes, who became better known for his reclusiveness than for the uses to which he put his vast wealth, was born in Houston, Texas. [Take our quiz about American personalities.]

Matthew Arnold, an English poet turned critic who decried his country as a backwater of provinciality and complacency, was born in Middlesex. [Test your knowledge of the opening lines of famous poems and the poets who penned them.]

The United States and Great Britain signed the Treaty of Ghent in Belgium, ending the War of 1812. The treaty did not resolve the issues that led to war, but a newfound sense of patriotism in many Americans, who were convinced that they had won, pushed the U.S. to pursue its national goals.