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Hong Kong High Court bans elected politicians Yau Wai-ching and Baggio Leung from the city's Parliament.[1]
Xi Jinping becomes General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and a new seven-member Politburo Standing Committee is inaugurated.
Cyclone Sidr hits Bangladesh, killing an estimated 5,000 people and destroying parts of the world's largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans.
The first day of the 2003 Istanbul bombings, in which two car bombs, targeting two synagogues, explode, killing 25 people and wounding about 300.
Hu Jintao becomes General Secretary of the Communist Party of China and a new nine-member Politburo Standing Committee is inaugurated.
A chartered Antonov An-24 crashes after takeoff from Luanda, Angola, killing more than 40 people.
The Communist People's Republic of Bulgaria is disestablished and a new republican government is instituted.
Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Atlantis launches with flight STS-38.
The first Fairtrade label, Max Havelaar, is launched in the Netherlands.
Israeli-Palestinian conflict: An independent State of Palestine is proclaimed by the Palestinian National Council.
In the Soviet Union, the unmanned Shuttle Buran makes its only space flight.
In Brașov, Romania, workers rebel against the communist regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu.
The Anglo-Irish Agreement is signed at Hillsborough Castle by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Irish Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald.
A research assistant is injured when a package from the Unabomber addressed to a University of Michigan professor explodes.
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus declared independence. Recognized only by Turkey.
A package from Unabomber Ted Kaczynski begins smoking in the cargo hold of a flight from Chicago to Washington, D.C., forcing the plane to make an emergency landing.
A chartered Douglas DC-8 crashes near Colombo, Sri Lanka, killing 183.
René Lévesque and the Parti Québécois take power to become the first Quebec government of the 20th century clearly in favor of independence.
Intel releases the world's first commercial single-chip microprocessor, the 4004.
Vietnam War: In Washington, D.C., 250,000-500,000 protesters staged a peaceful demonstration against the war, including a symbolic "March Against Death".
Cold War: The Soviet submarine K-19 collides with the American submarine USS Gato in the Barents Sea.
The only fatality of the North American X-15 program occurs during the 191st flight when Air Force test pilot Michael J. Adams loses control of his aircraft which is destroyed mid-air over the Mojave Desert.
A Boeing 727 carrying Pan Am Flight 708 crashes near Berlin, Germany, killing all three people on board.
Project Gemini: Gemini 12 completes the program's final mission, when it splashes down safely in the Atlantic Ocean.
The murders of the Clutter Family in Holcomb, Kansas, which inspired Truman Capote's non-fiction book In Cold Blood.
Greek resistance leader Nikos Beloyannis, along with 11 resistance members, is sentenced to death by the court-martial.
Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte are executed for assassinating Mahatma Gandhi.
The Holocaust: German SS leader Heinrich Himmler orders that Gypsies are to be put "on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps"
World War II: The Battle of Guadalcanal ends in a decisive Allied victory.
In Washington, D.C., US President Franklin D. Roosevelt lays the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial.
Manuel L. Quezon is inaugurated as the second President of the Philippines.
The RNLI lifeboat Mary Stanford capsized in Rye Harbour with the loss of the entire 17-man crew.
Over 1,000 are massacred during a general strike in Guayaquil, Ecuador.
First assembly of the League of Nations is held in Geneva, Switzerland.
Winston Churchill resigns from his Government, and soon commands the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers on the Western Front.
Harry Turner becomes the first player to die from game-related injuries in the "Ohio League", the direct predecessor to the National Football League.
Brazil is declared a republic by Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca as Emperor Pedro II is deposed in a military coup.
American Civil War: Union General William Tecumseh Sherman begins Sherman's March to the Sea.
Pike expedition: Lieutenant Zebulon Pike sees a distant mountain peak while near the Colorado foothills of the Rocky Mountains. (It is later named Pikes Peak.)
American Revolutionary War: After 16 months of debate the Continental Congress approves the Articles of Confederation.
The secondly-built Castellania in Valletta is officially inaugurated with the blessing of the interior Chapel of Sorrows.
Battle of Zsibó: Austrian-Danish victory over the Kurucs (Hungarians).
Francisco Pizarro arrives in Cuzco, the capital of the Inca Empire.
Commanded by Francisco Pizarro, Spanish conquistadors under Hernando de Soto meet Inca Empire leader Atahualpa for the first time outside Cajamarca, arranging a meeting on the city plaza the following day.
Battle of Morgarten: The Schweizer Eidgenossenschaft ambushes the army of Leopold I.
Battle of the Winwaed: Penda of Mercia is defeated by Oswiu of Northumbria.
Justin II succeeds his uncle, Justinian I, as emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
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