This day in history

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is established by 12 Western states: the United States, Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Iceland, Canada and Portugal.

The military alliance, which provided for collective self-defence against Soviet aggression, greatly increased American influence in Europe. Greece, Turkey and West Germany later joined NATO, and in 1966 France withdrew, citing American violations of the 1949 treaty. In 1955, the Warsaw Pact, a Soviet-led Eastern European alliance, was established to counter NATO.

In 1994, three years after the end of the Cold War, NATO engaged in its first military action as part of an international effort to end two years of fighting in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, former Warsaw Pact nations, joined NATO in 1999.

Bill Gates and Paul Allen found Microsoft.

Sir Robert Walpole becomes the first Prime Minister of Britain, although that title is not formally used, under King George I.