The Ingenuity helicopter becomes the first aircraft to achieve flight on another planet.
A killing spree in Nova Scotia, Canada, leaves 22 people and the perpetrator dead, making it the deadliest rampage in the country's history.
Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev is killed in a shootout with police. His brother Dzhokhar is later captured hiding in a boat inside a backyard in the suburb of Watertown.
Fidel Castro resigns as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba after holding the title since July 1961.
The Quito Ultratumba nightclub fire in Quito, Ecuador, kills 19 people and injures at least 24 more.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is elected to the papacy and becomes Pope Benedict XVI.
Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on STS-100 carrying the Canadarm2 to the International Space Station.
Air Philippines Flight 541 crashes in Samal, Davao del Norte, killing all 131 people on board.
Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, US, is bombed, killing 168 people including 19 children under the age of six.
The 51-day FBI siege of the Branch Davidian building in Waco, Texas, US, ends when a fire breaks out. Seventy-six Davidians, including 18 children under age 10, died in the fire.
A gun turret explodes on the USS Iowa, killing 47 sailors.
The Simpsons first appear as a series of shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show, first starting with "Good Night".
Two hundred ATF and FBI agents lay siege to the compound of the white supremacist survivalist group The Covenant, the Sword, and the Arm of the Lord in Arkansas; the CSA surrenders two days later.
Advance Australia Fair is proclaimed as Australia's national anthem, and green and gold as the national colours.
A violent F5 tornado strikes around Brownwood, Texas, injuring 11 people. Two people were thrown at least 1,000 yards (910 m) by the tornado and survived uninjured.
India's first satellite Aryabhata launched in orbit from Kapustin Yar, Russia.
South Vietnamese forces withdraw from the town of Xuan Loc in the last major battle of the Vietnam War.
The Portuguese Socialist Party is founded in the German town of Bad Münstereifel.
Sierra Leone becomes a republic, and Siaka Stevens the president.