The International Olympic Committee bans Russia from competing at the 2018 Winter Olympics for doping at the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Exploration Flight Test-1, the first flight test of Orion, is launched.
The Civil Partnership Act comes into effect in the United Kingdom, and the first civil partnership is registered there.
Leonid Kravchuk is elected the first president of Ukraine.
Egypt breaks diplomatic relations with Syria, Libya, Algeria, Iraq and South Yemen in retaliation to preventing President Anwar el-Sadat from pursuing negotiations with Israel at the Tripoli confer.
Battle of Gazipur: Pakistani forces are defeated as India cedes Gazipur to Bangladesh.
Vietnam War: For his heroism in battle earlier in the year, Captain Roger Donlon is awarded the first Medal of Honor of the war.
Lloyd J. Old discovers the first linkage between the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) and disease—mouse leukemia—opening the way for the recognition of the importance of the MHC in the immune response.
Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) is inaugurated in the United Kingdom by Queen Elizabeth II when she speaks to the Lord Provost in a call from Bristol to Edinburgh.
The Preston By-pass, the UK's first stretch of motorway, opens to traffic for the first time. (It is now part of the M6 and M55 motorways.)
World War II: Allied air forces begin attacking Germany's secret weapons bases in Operation Crossbow.
World War II: In the Battle of Moscow, Georgy Zhukov launches a massive Soviet counter-attack against the German army.
World War II: Great Britain declares war on Finland, Hungary and Romania.
The Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, repealing Prohibition in the United States.
Ukrainian War of Independence: The Polonsky conspiracy is suppressed and its participants are executed by the Kontrrazvedka.
The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition begins in an attempt to make the first land crossing of Antarctica.
New Haven Symphony Orchestra of Connecticut performs its first concert.
California Gold Rush: In a message to the United States Congress, U.S. President James K. Polk confirms that large amounts of gold had been discovered in California.
Former U.S. President John Quincy Adams takes his seat in the House of Representatives.
Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest academic honor society in the U.S., holds its first meeting at the College of William & Mary.