1924Ibn Saud of Nedzhed captures Mecca.
1958: Pius XII dies after 19 years as Pope, including a papacy that spanned the Second World War. Pius XII remained silent as 6 million Jews were exterminated in Nazi death camps.
1977: Lebanon's Charbel Makhlouf, a Maronite hermit born in 1828 who lived in Annaya in the mountains of Lebanon until his death in 1898 and is revered by Muslims and Christians, is canonized a saint by the 80-year-old Pope Paul VI. The ceremony at St. Paul Basilica in Rome draws a crowd of 20,000, including 6,000 Lebanese of all faiths. Meanwhile, the civil war in Lebanon continues to rage in its third year.
1985: The Palestinian hijackers of the Achille Lauro cruise liner surrendered in Port Said, Egypt--to members of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Egypt agreed to let the PLO take custody of the hijackers and give them safe passage out of the country to an undisclosed location. A day later, four F-14's from the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Saratoga intercept the plane carrying the hijackers, forcing it to land in Rome, where the men are apprehended. Italy, in turn, eventually released them.
