The United States suspends travel from Europe due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the House of Commons, the revised EU Withdrawal Bill was rejected by a margin of 149 votes.
US-Bangla Airlines Flight 211 crashes at Tribhuvan International Airport in Katmandu, killing 51 and injuring 20.
A gas explosion in the New York City neighborhood of East Harlem kills eight and injures 70 others.
A reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant explodes and releases radioactivity into the atmosphere a day after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.
Financier Bernie Madoff pleads guilty to one of the largest frauds in Wall Street's history.
In Mahmoudiyah, Iraq, 14-year-old Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi is raped and murdered by five American soldiers of the 502nd Infantry Regiment, who also murder both of her parents and her sister.
President of South Korea, Roh Moo-hyun, is impeached by its National Assembly, the first such impeachment in the nation's history.
Zoran Đinđić, Prime Minister of Serbia, is assassinated in Belgrade.
The World Health Organization officially release a global warning of outbreaks of Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
Former Warsaw Pact members the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland join NATO.
Several bombs explode in Mumbai, India, killing about 300 people and injuring hundreds more.
North Korea announces that it will withdraw from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and refuses to allow inspectors access to its nuclear sites.
Mauritius becomes a republic while remaining a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.
Tim Berners-Lee submits his proposal to CERN for an information management system, which subsequently develops into the World Wide Web.
The 1971 Turkish military memorandum is sent to the Süleyman Demirel government of Turkey and the government resigns.
Mauritius gains independence from the United Kingdom.
Suharto takes power from Sukarno when the Provisional People's Consultative Assembly inaugurate him as Acting President of Indonesia.
The Llandow air disaster kills 80 people when the aircraft they are travelling in crashes near Sigingstone, Wales. At the time this was the world's deadliest air disaster.
Cold War: The Truman Doctrine is proclaimed to help stem the spread of Communism.
The Battle of Java ends with the surrender of the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command to the Empire of Japan in Bandung, West Java, Dutch East Indies.
The most destructive train accident in Finnish history kills 39 and injures 69 people in Turenki, Janakkala.
Winter War: Finland signs the Moscow Peace Treaty with the Soviet Union, ceding almost all of Finnish Karelia.
Anschluss: German troops occupy and annex Austria.
Great Depression: Franklin D. Roosevelt addresses the nation for the first time as President of the United States. This is also the first of his "fireside chats".
Mahatma Gandhi begins the Salt March, a 200-mile (320 km) march to the sea to protest the British monopoly on salt in India.
In California, the St. Francis Dam fails; the resulting floods kill 431 people.
The Kapp Putsch begins when the Marinebrigade Ehrhardt is ordered to march on Berlin.
Moscow becomes the capital of Russia again after Saint Petersburg held this status for most of the period since 1713.
The future capital of Australia is officially named Canberra.
The Girl Guides (later renamed the Girl Scouts of the USA) are founded in the United States.
Paddle steamer Brother Jonathan docks in Fort Victoria (now Victoria, British Columbia), carrying smallpox-infected passengers from San Francisco. The ensuing epidemic killed an estimated two-thirds of First Nations in the province of British Columbi...
Peninsular War: A day after a successful rearguard action, French Marshal Michel Ney once again successfully delays the pursuing Anglo-Portuguese force at the Battle of Redinha.
James II of England lands at Kinsale, starting the Williamite War in Ireland.
Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier, founders of the Society of Jesus, are canonized by the Roman Catholic Church.
Start of the Siege of Maastricht, part of the Eighty Years' War.
Konrad von Wallenrode is elected the 24th Grand Master of the Teutonic Order (date is O.S.).
German city Munich (München) is first mentioned as forum apud Munichen in the Augsburg arbitration by Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich I.
Election of Urban II as the 159th Pope of the Catholic Church. He is best known for initiating the Crusades.
Vitiges, king of the Ostrogoths, ends his siege of Rome and retreats to Ravenna, leaving the city to the victorious Byzantine general, Belisarius.