The historic Børsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, is severely damaged by a fire.
The New York Times and the New Yorker win the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for breaking news of the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse scandal.
Ecuador's worst earthquake in nearly 40 years kills 676 and injures more than 230,000.
The South Korean ferry MV Sewol capsizes and sinks near Jindo Island, killing 304 passengers and crew and leading to widespread criticism of the South Korean government, media, and shipping authorities.
A 7.8-magnitude earthquake strikes Sistan and Balochistan province, Iran, killing at least 35 people and injuring 117 others.
The 2013 Baga massacre is started when Boko Haram militants engage government soldiers in Baga.
The trial for Anders Behring Breivik, the perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks, begins in Oslo, Norway.
The Pulitzer Prize winners were announced, it was the first time since 1977 that no book won the Fiction Prize.
The U.S. Supreme Court rules in the Baze v. Rees decision that execution by lethal injection does not violate the Eighth Amendment ban against cruel and unusual punishment.
Virginia Tech shooting: Seung-Hui Cho murders 32 people and injures 17 before committing suicide.
The Treaty of Accession is signed in Athens admitting ten new member states to the European Union.
India and Bangladesh begin a five-day border conflict, but are unable to resolve the disputes about their border.
Apollo program: The launch of Apollo 16 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
U.S. civil rights campaigner Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. writes his open letter from Birmingham Jail, sometimes known as "The Negro Is Your Brother", while incarcerated in Birmingham, Alabama, for protesting against segregation.
In a nationally broadcast speech, Cuban leader Fidel Castro declares that he is a Marxist–Leninist and that Cuba is going to adopt Communism.
The Organization of European Economic Co-operation is formed.
An explosion on board a freighter in port causes the city of Texas, United States, to catch fire, killing almost 600 people.
Bernard Baruch first applies the term "Cold War" to describe the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union.
World War II: The Red Army begins the final assault on German forces around Berlin, with nearly one million troops fighting in the Battle of the Seelow Heights.
The United States Army liberates Nazi Sonderlager (high security) prisoner-of-war camp Oflag IV-C (better known as Colditz).