The U.S. space shuttle program ended, after 135 missions, as the orbiter Atlantis landed at NASA‘s John F. Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida. 2011.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final book in J.K. Rowling‘s Harry Potter series, was released. 2007.
The world’s lowest recorded temperature, −128.6 °F (−89.2 °C), was measured at Vostok Station, Antarctica. 1983.
Albert John Luthuli, president of the African National Congress (1952–67) and the first African to be awarded a Nobel Prize for Peace (1960), died, reportedly after being struck by a train, although that narrative has been challenged. 1967.
Politician Sirimavo Bandaranaike became the world’s first woman prime minister when she took office in Ceylon (later Sri Lanka). 1960.
