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Violence in Bachu County, Kashgar Prefecture, of China's Xinjiang results in death of 21 people.
A building collapses near Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing 1,129 people and injuring 2,500 others.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is inaugurated as the 265th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church taking the name Pope Benedict XVI.
The United States lifts economic sanctions imposed on Libya 18 years previously, as a reward for its cooperation in eliminating weapons of mass destruction.
In the United States, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 is passed into law.
An IRA bomb devastates the Bishopsgate area of London.
Gruinard Island, Scotland, is officially declared free of the anthrax disease after 48 years of quarantine.
STS-31: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery.
Eight U.S. servicemen die in Operation Eagle Claw as they attempt to end the Iran hostage crisis.
The Gambia becomes a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations, with Dawda Jawara as its first President.
Vietnam War: American General William Westmoreland says in a news conference that the enemy had "gained support in the United States that gives him hope that he can win politically that which he cannot win militarily."
Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when its parachute fails to open. He is the first human to die during a space mission.
Civil war breaks out in the Dominican Republic when Colonel Francisco Caamaño, overthrows the triumvirate that had been in power since the coup d'état against Juan Bosch.
Marriage of HRH Princess Alexandra of Kent to the Hon Angus Ogilvy at Westminster Abbey in London.
Suez Crisis: The Suez Canal is reopened following the introduction of UNEF peacekeepers to the region.
The Bandung Conference ends: Twenty-nine non-aligned nations of Asia and Africa finish a meeting that condemns colonialism, racism, and the Cold War.
World War II: The SBS launches a raid against the garrison of Santorini in Greece.
Nazi Germany begins its persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses by shutting down the Watch Tower Society office in Magdeburg.
Benny Rothman leads the mass trespass of Kinder Scout, leading to substantial legal reforms in the United Kingdom.
The Treaty of Berlin is signed. Germany and the Soviet Union each pledge neutrality in the event of an attack on the other by a third party for the next five years.
In Vienna, the paper Das Ich und das Es (The Ego and the Id) by Sigmund Freud is published, which outlines Freud's theories of the id, ego, and super-ego.
The first segment of the Imperial Wireless Chain providing wireless telegraphy between Leafield in Oxfordshire, England, and Cairo, Egypt, comes into operation.
First tank-to-tank combat, at Villers-Bretonneux, France, when three British Mark IVs meet three German A7Vs.
Ernest Shackleton and five men of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition launch a lifeboat from uninhabited Elephant Island in the Southern Ocean to organise a rescue for the crew of the sunken Endurance.
Easter Rising: Irish rebels, led by Patrick Pearse and James Connolly, launch an uprising in Dublin against British rule and proclaim an Irish Republic.
The arrest of 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Istanbul marks the beginning of the Armenian Genocide.
The Franck-Hertz experiment, a pillar of quantum mechanics, is presented to the German Physical Society.
The Woolworth Building, a skyscraper in New York City, is opened.
Joshua Slocum, the first person to sail single-handedly around the world, sets sail from Boston, Massachusetts aboard the sloop "Spray".
American sharpshooter Annie Oakley is hired by Nate Salsbury to be a part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West.
Russo-Turkish War: Russian Empire declares war on Ottoman Empire.
The United States Library of Congress is established when President John Adams signs legislation to appropriate $5,000 to purchase "such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress".
The first regular newspaper in British Colonial America, The Boston News-Letter, is published.
Mary, Queen of Scots, marries the Dauphin of France, François, at Notre Dame de Paris.
Battle of Mühlberg. Duke of Alba, commanding Spanish-Imperial forces of Charles I of Spain, defeats the troops of Schmalkaldic League.
Thutmose III ascends to the throne of Egypt, although power effectively shifts to Hatshepsut (according to the Low Chronology of the 18th dynasty).
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