The World Health Organization issues its first emergency use validation for a COVID-19 vaccine.
NASA succeeds in putting the first of two Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory satellites in orbit around the Moon.
The first President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, resigns from office, leaving Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the acting President and successor.
Indian Airlines Flight 814 hijacking ends after seven days with the release of 190 survivors at Kandahar Airport, Afghanistan.
The First Chechen War: The Russian Ground Forces begin a New Year's storming of Grozny.
Benjamin Ward is appointed New York City Police Department's first ever African American police commissioner.
A coup d'état in Ghana removes President Hilla Limann's PNP government and replaces it with the Provisional National Defence Council led by Flight lieutenant Jerry Rawlings.
The first flight of the Tupolev Tu-144, the first civilian supersonic transport in the world.
Jean-Bédel Bokassa, leader of the Central African Republic army, and his military officers begin a coup d'état against the government of President David Dacko.
RTÉ, Ireland's state broadcaster, launches its first national television service.
The Romanian Television network begins its first broadcast in Bucharest.
General Motors becomes the first U.S. corporation to make over US$1 billion in a year.
President Harry S. Truman officially proclaims the end of hostilities in World War II.
World War II: Operation Nordwind, the last major Wehrmacht offensive on the Western Front, begins.
USS Essex, first aircraft carrier of a 24-ship class, is commissioned.
World War II: The Royal Navy defeats the Kriegsmarine at the Battle of the Barents Sea. This leads to the resignation of Grand Admiral Erich Raeder a month later.
Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time, in Menlo Park, New Jersey.
Karl Benz, working in Mannheim, Germany, files for a patent on his first reliable two-stroke gas engine. He was granted the patent in 1879.