1971 - American rock singer Jim Morrison, leader of the Doors, dies in Paris of a drug overdose.
1608 - French explorer Samuel de Champlain establishes the first permanent European settlement in Canada, a trading post along the St. Lawrence River that becomes the city of Québec.
1962 - After a long and brutal colonial war and a vote by Algerians for independence, French president Charles de Gaulle proclaims the independence of Algeria from France.
