After 70 years of single-party rule, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, led by General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev's recommendation, gives up its political monopoly and allows competitive elections. By the end of 1991, the Soviet Union ceased to exist, and the Cold War was over.
At the Battle of Anzio German forces in Italy launch a counterattack against Allied forces following their amphibious landings. The Allied Operation Shingle had successfully landed soldiers south of Rome, but the Germans sought to halt their progress.
American writer Sinclair Lewis is born in Minnesota. Lewis became the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1930, following successful novels such as Main Street, Babbitt, and Arrowsmith, which combined humor with critiques of American society.
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