1979 Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is executed

The former President of Pakistan had been deposed by a coup d’etat. He was hanged despite international calls to stop the execution.

1975 Bill Gates and Paul Allen establish Microsoft

Microsoft has developed into a multinational corporation, and it is the world’s largest software maker by revenue.

1969 Denton Cooley implants the first artificial heart

The machine kept patient Haskell Karp alive for 65 hours. He died before a human heart could become available.

1968 Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated

The civil rights activist was killed by James Earl Ray. Ray, a segregationist, received a 99-year prison sentence. He died in jail in 1998.

1949 NATO is formed

12 nations signed the North Atlantic Treaty to establish what is today one of the world’s most important military alliances.