The JAXA probe Akatsuki successfully enters orbit around Venus five years after the first attempt.
In Texas, Charles Brooks Jr., becomes the first person to be executed by lethal injection in the United States.
Apollo 17, the last Apollo Moon mission, is launched. The crew takes the photograph known as The Blue Marble as they leave the Earth.
The Battle of Sylhet is fought between the Pakistani military and the Indian Army.
Pakistan President Yahya Khan announces the formation of a coalition government with Nurul Amin as Prime Minister and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as Deputy Prime Minister.
World War II: British commandos conduct Operation Frankton, a raid on shipping in Bordeaux harbour.
World War II: Attack on Pearl Harbor: The Imperial Japanese Navy carries out a surprise attack on the United States Pacific Fleet and its defending Army and Marine air forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. (For Japan's near-simultaneous attacks on Eastern...
Australian cricketer Jack Fingleton becomes the first player to score centuries in four consecutive Test innings.
German-born Swiss physicist Albert Einstein is granted an American visa.
W1XAV in Boston, Massachusetts telecasts video from the CBS radio orchestra program, The Fox Trappers. The telecast also includes the first television advertisement in the United States, for I.J. Fox Furriers, which also sponsored the radio show.
World War I: The United States declares war on Austria-Hungary.
Comparative fuel trials begin between warships HMS Spiteful and HMS Peterel: Spiteful was the first warship powered solely by fuel oil, and the trials led to the obsolescence of coal in ships of the Royal Navy.
First concert of the New York Philharmonic, founded by Ureli Corelli Hill.
Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the United States Constitution.