This day in history

The first annual Cannes Film Festival opens.

Once a year, the allure of the French Riviera mixes with silver screen mania and pure show business glitz in an international pageant known as the Cannes Film Festival. The festival intended to make its debut in 1939, but the outbreak of World War II delayed the premiere.

Finally, on 20 September, 1946, the festival was born and 18 nations were represented at one of the first great post-war cultural events.
 

A UN peacekeeping force arrives in East Timor to try and restore order.

In Lebanon, a suicide bomber drives a lorry full of explosives into the U.S. embassy in Beirut, killing at least 20 people.

In America, Marvin Gay Sr. agrees to a plea bargain agreement, which keeps him out of jail for shooting his son, singer Marvin Gaye.

In Britain, the cruise liner the QE2 (Queen Elizabeth II) is launched from Clydebank.

Crimean War: British and French troops defeat the Russians at the Battle of Alma.