On this day in 1937, Japanese troops took control of Shanghai, China.
On this day in 1953, Cambodia gained independence from France.
This day in 1989 saw the fall of the Berlin Wall. Communist-controlled East Germany opened checkpoints in the Berlin Wall allowing its citizens to travel to West Germany. This key event led to the eventual reunification of East and West Germany, and fall of communism in Eastern Europe including Russia.
And on this day in 1998, a US federal judge ordered 37 US brokerage houses to pay US$1.03 billion to cheated NASDAQ investors to compensate for price-fixing. This is the largest civil settlement in United States history.