The 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict begins along the Nagorno-Karabakh Line of Contact.
After protests against the burning of the Quran turn violent, a mob attacks a United Nations compound in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, resulting in the deaths of fourteen people, including seven UN workers.
Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) of the Government of the United Kingdom is enforced, but later merged into National Crime Agency on 7 October 2013.
An EP-3E United States Navy surveillance aircraft collides with a Chinese People's Liberation Army Shenyang J-8 fighter jet. The Chinese pilot ejected but is subsequently lost. The Navy crew makes an emergency landing in Hainan, China and is detained...
Former President of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milošević surrenders to police special forces, to be tried on war crimes charges.
Same-sex marriage becomes legal in the Netherlands, the first contemporary country to allow it.
Nunavut is established as a Canadian territory carved out of the eastern part of the Northwest Territories.
Comet Hale–Bopp is seen passing at perihelion.
NASCAR champion Alan Kulwicki is killed in a plane crash near the Tri-Cities Regional Airport in Blountville, Tennessee.
Margaret Thatcher's new local government tax, the Community Charge (commonly known as the "poll tax"), is introduced in Scotland.
Communist Party of Nepal (Mashal) cadres attack a number of police stations in Kathmandu, seeking to incite a popular rebellion.
Singer Marvin Gaye is shot to death by his father in his home in Arlington Heights, Los Angeles, California.
Iran becomes an Islamic republic by a 99% vote, officially overthrowing the Shah.
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak found Apple Computer, Inc.
The Local Government Act 1972 of England and Wales comes into effect.
Project Tiger, a tiger conservation project, is launched in the Jim Corbett National Park, India.
Bangladesh Liberation War: The Pakistan Army massacre more than a thousand people in Keraniganj Upazila, Bangladesh.
President Richard Nixon signs the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act into law.
A Royal Air Maroc Sud Aviation Caravelle crashes near Berrechid, Morocco, killing 61.