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Nintendo releases the hybrid video game console Nintendo Switch worldwide to critical acclaim.
A bomb blast in Karachi, Pakistan, kills at least 45 people and injured 180 others in a predominately Shia Muslim area.
Margaret Wilson is elected as Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives, beginning a period lasting until August 23, 2006 where all the highest political offices (including Elizabeth II as Head of State), were occupied by women, making New Zealand the first country for this to occur.
Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly an airplane non-stop around the world solo without refueling.
James Roszko murders four Royal Canadian Mounted Police constables during a drug bust at his property in Rochfort Bridge, Alberta, then commits suicide. This is the deadliest peace-time incident for the RCMP since 1885 and the North-West Rebellion.
The tallest free-standing structure in the Southern Hemisphere, Sky Tower in downtown Auckland, New Zealand, opens after two-and-a-half years of construction.
An amateur video captures the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers.
The Australia Act 1986 commences, causing Australia to become fully independent from the United Kingdom.
A magnitude 8.3 earthquake strikes the Valparaíso Region of Chile, killing 177 and leaving nearly a million people homeless.
Arthur Scargill declares that the National Union of Mineworkers' national executive voted to end the longest-running industrial dispute in Great Britain without any peace deal over pit closures.
The USS Nautilus is decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register.
Turkish Airlines Flight 981 crashes at Ermenonville near Paris, France killing all 346 aboard.
Mohawk Airlines Flight 405 crashes as a result of a control malfunction and insufficient training in emergency procedures.
Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 9 to test the lunar module.
Nuri al-Said becomes Prime Minister of Iraq for the eighth time.
A De Havilland Comet (Canadian Pacific Air Lines) crashes in Karachi, Pakistan, killing 11.
Jackie Brenston, with Ike Turner and his band, records "Rocket 88", often cited as "the first rock and roll record", at Sam Phillips's recording studios in Memphis, Tennessee.
World War II: The RAF accidentally bombs the Bezuidenhout area of The Hague, Netherlands, killing 511 people.
The Order of Nakhimov and Order of Ushakov are instituted in USSR as the highest naval awards.
World War II: In London, 173 people are killed in a crush while trying to enter an air-raid shelter at Bethnal Green tube station.
World War II: Ten Japanese warplanes raid Broome, Western Australia, killing more than 100 people.
Five people are killed in an arson attack on the offices of the communist newspaper Flamman in Luleå, Sweden.
In Bombay, Mohandas Gandhi begins a hunger strike in protest at the autocratic rule in British India.
Oil is discovered in Saudi Arabia.
The United States adopts The Star-Spangled Banner as its national anthem.
The Free State of Fiume is annexed by the Kingdom of Italy.
The fourteenth-century Islamic caliphate is abolished when Caliph Abdülmecid II of the Ottoman Empire is deposed. The last remnant of the old regime gives way to the reformed Turkey of Kemal Atatürk.
Russia signs the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, agreeing to withdraw from World War I, and conceding German control of the Baltic States, Belarus and Ukraine. It also conceded Turkish control of Ardahan, Kars and Batumi.
Thousands of women march in a suffrage parade in Washington, D.C.
Rockefeller Foundation: John D. Rockefeller Jr. announces his retirement from managing his businesses so that he can devote all his time to philanthropy.
Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany becomes the first person to make a sound recording of a political document, using Thomas Edison's phonograph cylinder.
The American Telephone & Telegraph Company is incorporated in New York.
The Russo-Turkish War ends with Bulgaria regaining its independence from the Ottoman Empire according to the Treaty of San Stefano; a few months afterwards the Congress of Berlin stripped its status to a vassal principality of the Ottoman Empire.
The first ever organized indoor game of ice hockey is played in Montreal, Quebec, Canada as recorded in the Montreal Gazette.
Georges Bizet's opera Carmen receives its première at the Opéra-Comique in Paris.
Censorship in the United States: The U.S. Congress enacts the Comstock Law, making it illegal to send any "obscene, lewd, or lascivious" books through the mail.
Opening of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, the founding member of the HSBC Group.
Alexander II of Russia signs the Emancipation Manifesto, freeing serfs.
The two-day Great Slave Auction, the largest such auction in United States history, concludes.
The Russo-Ottoman siege of Corfu ends with the surrender of the French garrison.
American Revolutionary War: The Continental Army is routed at the Battle of Brier Creek near Savannah, Georgia.
American Revolutionary War: The first amphibious landing of the United States Marine Corps begins the Battle of Nassau.
The Olympic Theatre, designed by Andrea Palladio, is inaugurated in Vicenza.
Indian Mughal Emperor Akbar defeats Bengali army at the Battle of Tukaroi.
The Statute of Rhuddlan incorporates the Principality of Wales into England.
Empress Genshō abdicates the throne in favor of her nephew Shōmu who becomes emperor of Japan.
Gundobad (nephew of Ricimer) nominates Glycerius as emperor of the Western Roman Empire.
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