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A China Southern Airlines Flight 3456 crashes on approach into Bao'an International Airport, killing 35 people.
A fire at Illinois Bell's Hinsdale Central Office triggers an extended 1AESS network outage once considered the "worst telecommunications disaster in US telephone industry history".
The Loughgall ambush: The SAS kills eight Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteers and a civilian during an ambush in Loughgall, Northern Ireland.
Corporal Denis Lortie enters the Quebec National Assembly and opens fire, killing three people and wounding 13. René Jalbert, Sergeant-at-Arms of the assembly, succeeds in calming him, for which he will later receive the Cross of Valour.
The World Health Organization confirms the eradication of smallpox.
The first ascent of Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen, by Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler.
The rollercoaster The New Revolution, the first steel coaster with a vertical loop, opens at Six Flags Magic Mountain.
A 71-day standoff between federal authorities and the American Indian Movement members occupying the Pine Ridge Reservation at Wounded Knee, South Dakota ends with the surrender of the militants.
Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard Nixon announces his order to place mines in major North Vietnamese ports in order to stem the flow of weapons and other goods to that nation.
The Philippine province of Davao is split into three: Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, and Davao Oriental.
South Vietnamese soldiers under the Roman Catholic President Ngo Dinh Diem open fire on Buddhists defying a ban on the flying of the Buddhist flag on Vesak, killing nine and sparking the Buddhist crisis.
Estonian schoolgirls Aili Jõgi and Ageeda Paavel blow up the Soviet memorial which stood in front of the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn.
The Halifax riot starts when thousands of civilians and servicemen rampage through Halifax.
End of the Prague uprising, celebrated now as a national holiday in the Czech Republic.
World War II: V-E Day, combat ends in Europe. German forces agree in Reims, France, to an unconditional surrender.
Hundreds of Algerian civilians are killed by French Army soldiers in the Sétif massacre.
World War II: Gunners of the Ceylon Garrison Artillery on Horsburgh Island in the Cocos Islands rebel in the Cocos Islands Mutiny. Their mutiny is crushed and three of them are executed, the only British Commonwealth soldiers to be executed for mutiny during the Second World War.
World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea comes to an end with Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carrier aircraft attacking and sinking the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Lexington. The battle marks the first time in the naval history that two enemy fleets fight without visual contact between warring ships.
World War II: The Battle of the Kerch Peninsula: The German 11th Army begins Operation Trappenjagd (Bustard Hunt) and destroys the bridgehead of the three Soviet Armies (44th, 47th, and 51st) defending the Kerch Peninsula, in the eastern part of the Crimea.
The German Luftwaffe launches a bombing raid on Nottingham and Derby
Mohandas Gandhi begins a 21-day fast of self-purification and launched a one-year campaign to help the Harijan movement.
Attempting to make the first non-stop transatlantic flight from Paris to New York, French war heroes Charles Nungesser and François Coli disappear after taking off aboard The White Bird biplane.
The Klaipėda Convention is signed formally incorporating Klaipėda Region (Memel Territory) into Lithuania.
Edward George Honey proposes the idea of a moment of silence to commemorate the Armistice of 11 November 1918 which ended World War I.
In Martinique, Mount Pelée erupts, destroying the town of Saint-Pierre and killing over 30,000 people. Only a handful of residents survive the blast.
The first games of the Italian football league system are played.
Pharmacist John Pemberton first sells a carbonated beverage named "Coca-Cola" as a patent medicine.
At Gilmore's Gardens in New York City, the first Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show opens.
American Civil War: Richmond, Virginia is named the capital of the Confederate States of America.
Mexican-American War: The Battle of Palo Alto: Zachary Taylor defeats a Mexican force north of the Rio Grande in the first major battle of the war.
A train derails and catches fire in Paris, killing between 52 and 200 people.
Greek War of Independence: The Greeks defeat the Turks at the Battle of Gravia Inn.
Branded a traitor during the Reign of Terror by revolutionists, French chemist Antoine Lavoisier, who was also a tax collector with the Ferme générale, is tried, convicted and guillotined in one day in Paris.
The French Parlement is suspended to be replaced by the creation of forty-seven new courts.
Hernando de Soto reaches the Mississippi River and names it Río de Espíritu Santo.
Trần Cảo Rebellion: A group of imperial guards, led by Trịnh Duy Sản, murdered Emperor Lê Tương Dực and fled, leaving the capital Thăng Long undefended.
Jack Cade's Rebellion: Kentishmen revolt against King Henry VI.
Joan of Arc lifts the Siege of Orléans, turning the tide of the Hundred Years' War.
Emperor Honorius signs an edict providing tax relief for the Italian provinces Tuscia, Campania, Picenum, Samnium, Apulia, Lucania and Calabria, which were plundered by the Visigoths.
Spring and Autumn period: The house of Zhao defeats the house of Zhi, ending the Battle of Jinyang, a military conflict between the elite families of the State of Jin.
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