Boris Yeltsin

"It is especially important to encourage unorthodox thinking when the situation is critical: At such moments, every new word and fresh thought is more precious than gold."

Boris Yeltsin

Born this day in 1931, Boris Yeltsin, president of Russia from 1990 to 1999, became in 1991 the first popularly elected leader in Russian history and guided his country through a decade of political and economic transition.

On this day in 2003, while returning to Earth from an orbital mission, the U.S. space shuttle Columbia broke up catastrophically at an altitude of about 60 km (40 miles) over Texas, killing all seven crew members.

More Events on this day:

1979: The spacecraft Voyager 1 photographed Jupiter from a distance of 32.7 million km (20.3 million miles).

1923: The private army of Blackshirts that had helped Benito Mussolini come to power in Italy was officially transformed into a national militia, the Voluntary Fascist Militia for National Security.

1901: American motion-picture star Clark Gable was born in Cadiz, Ohio.

1884: The first of 10 volumes of the Oxford English Dictionary was published in London, the final volume being published April 19, 1928.

1820: In a battle fought at Cepeda, Argentina, federalist forces defeated unitarios, who were advocates of strong central government.