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China successfully launches the Bolivian Túpac Katari 1 from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.
The Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904), by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, and O Lavrador de Café by Brazilian modernist painter Cândido Portinari, are stolen from the São Paulo Museum of Art.
Elizabeth II becomes the oldest monarch of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria, who lived for 81 years, 7 months and 29 days.
A gang of thieves steal £26.5 million worth of currency from the Donegall Square West headquarters of Northern Bank in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, one of the largest bank robberies in British history.
Macau is handed over to China by Portugal.
American Airlines Flight 965, a Boeing 757, crashes into a mountain 50 km north of Cali, Colombia killing 159.
A Missouri court sentences the Palestinian militant Zein Isa and his wife Maria to death for the honor killing of their daughter Palestina.
The United States invasion of Panama deposes Manuel Noriega.
In the worst peacetime sea disaster, the passenger ferry Doña Paz sinks after colliding with the oil tanker Vector in the Tablas Strait in the Philippines, killing an estimated 4,000 people (1,749 official).
Pope John Paul II announces the institution of World Youth Day.
The Summit Tunnel fire is the largest underground fire in history, as a freight train carrying over 1 million liters of gasoline derails near the town of Todmorden, England, in the Pennines.
The Prime Minister of Spain, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, is assassinated by a car bomb attack in Madrid.
The international aid organization Doctors Without Borders is founded by Bernard Kouchner and a group of journalists in Paris, France.
The Zodiac Killer kills Betty Lou Jenson and David Faraday in Vallejo, California.
A Pennsylvania Railroad Budd Metroliner exceeds 155 mph on their New York Division, also present day Amtrak's Northeast Corridor.
A United States Air Force C-124 crashes and burns in Moses Lake, Washington killing 87.
The EBR-1 in Arco, Idaho becomes the first nuclear power plant to generate electricity. The electricity powered four light bulbs.
The popular Christmas film It's a Wonderful Life is first released in New York City.
World War II: Japanese air forces bomb Calcutta, India.
World War II: First battle of the American Volunteer Group, better known as the "Flying Tigers" in Kunming, China.
World War I: The battle of Verdun results in a French victory after more than 9 months of intense fighting.
World War I: The last Australian troops are evacuated from Gallipoli.
South Carolina becomes the first state to attempt to secede from the United States.
HMS Clio under the command of Captain Onslow arrives at Port Egmont under orders to take possession of the Falkland Islands
The Louisiana Purchase is completed at a ceremony in New Orleans.
The Virginia Company loads three ships with settlers and sets sail to establish Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas.
Siege of Rhodes: Suleiman the Magnificent accepts the surrender of the surviving Knights of Rhodes, who are allowed to evacuate. They eventually settle on Malta and become known as the Knights of Malta.
Richard I of England is captured and imprisoned by Leopold V of Austria on his way home to England after the Third Crusade.
Callixtus I is elected as the sixteenth pope, although Hippolytus of Rome is soon thereafter elected as a rival pope.
Vespasian, formerly a general under Nero, enters Rome to claim the title of Emperor.
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