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A magnitude 6.1 earthquake strikes Aceh, Indonesia, killing at least 42 people and injuring 420 others.
The International Astronomical Union names Pluto's fourth and fifth moons, Kerberos and Styx.
The South Kivu tank truck explosion in the Democratic Republic of the Congo kills at least 230 people.
Íngrid Betancourt, a member of the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia, is released from captivity after being held for six and a half years by FARC.
The Live 8 benefit concerts takes place in the G8 states and in South Africa. More than 1,000 musicians perform and are broadcast on 182 television networks and 2,000 radio networks.
Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon.
Vicente Fox Quesada is elected the first President of México from an opposition party, the Partido Acción Nacional, after more than 70 years of continuous rule by the Partido Revolucionario Institucional.
The Bank of Thailand floats the baht, triggering the Asian financial crisis
Rodrigo Rojas and Carmen Gloria Quintana are burnt alive during a street demonstration against the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in Chile.
Fall of the Republic of Vietnam; Communist North Vietnam declares their union to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
The French military explodes a nuclear test bomb code-named Aldébaran in Moruroa, their first nuclear test in the Pacific.
U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 meant to prohibit segregation in public places.
Indian independence leader Subhas Chandra Bose is arrested and detained in Calcutta.
Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan are last heard from over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first equatorial round-the-world flight.
The Night of the Long Knives ends with the death of Ernst Röhm.
World War I: U.S. President Warren G. Harding signs the Knox-Porter Resolution formally ending the war between the United States and Imperial Germany.
Jean Sibelius' Finlandia receives its première performance in Helsinki with the Helsinki Philharmonic Society conducted by Robert Kajanus.
The first Zeppelin flight takes place on Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany.
British-Italian engineer Guglielmo Marconi obtains a patent for radio in London.
The U.S. Congress passes the Sherman Antitrust Act.
Charles J. Guiteau shoots and fatally wounds U.S. President James Garfield (who would die of complications from his wounds on September 19).
Victor Emmanuel II of Italy enters Rome after having conquered it from the Papal States.
The Russian Army crossed the Pruth river into the Danubian Principalities, Moldavia and Wallachia—providing the spark that set off the Crimean War.
Twenty miles off the coast of Cuba, 53 rebelling African slaves led by Joseph Cinqué take over the slave ship Amistad.
Bahia Independence Day: The end of Portuguese rule in Brazil, with the final defeat of the Portuguese crown loyalists in the province of Bahia.
Thirty-five slaves are hanged in South Carolina, including Denmark Vesey, after being accused of organizing a slave rebellion.
The French frigate Méduse struck the Bank of Arguin and 151 people on board had to be evacuated on an improvised raft, a case immortalised by Géricault's painting The Raft of the Medusa.
The Continental Congress adopts a resolution severing ties with the Kingdom of Great Britain although the wording of the formal Declaration of Independence is not published until July 4.
The first English expedition (from Virginia) against Acadia led by Samuel Argall takes place.
Battle of Yamazaki: Toyotomi Hideyoshi defeats Akechi Mitsuhide.
The Battle of Göllheim is fought between Albert I of Habsburg and Adolf of Nassau-Weilburg.
The imperial army proclaims Nikephoros II Phokas Emperor of the Romans on the plains outside Cappadocian Caesarea.
King Henry the Fowler dies in his royal palace in Memleben. He is succeeded by his son Otto I, who becomes the ruler of East Francia.
Battle of Brissarthe: The Franks led by Robert the Strong are defeated by a joint Breton-Viking army.
In China, Emperor Zhongzong of Tang inters the bodies of relatives in the Qianling Mausoleum, located on Mount Liang outside Chang'an.
Li Shimin, the future Emperor Taizong of Tang, ambushes and kills his rival brothers Li Yuanji and Li Jiancheng in the Xuanwu Gate Incident.
Emperor Valentinian III begins his reign over the Western Roman Empire. His mother Galla Placidia ends her regency, but continues to exercise political influence at the court in Rome.
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