Guinean President Alpha Condé survives an attempted assassination and coup d'état at his residence in Conakry.
The first three-dimensional reconstruction of a human head in a CT is published.
In one of the first militant attacks by Hezbollah, David S. Dodge, president of the American University of Beirut, is kidnapped.
In a private meeting with U.S. President Ronald Reagan, French President François Mitterrand reveals the existence of the Farewell Dossier, a collection of documents showing the Soviet Union had been stealing American technological research and devel...
The world's first Global Positioning System (GPS) signal was transmitted from Navigation Technology Satellite 2 (NTS-2) and received at Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, at 12:41 a.m. Eastern time (ET).
Opening of the Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland.
World War II: Rome is heavily bombed by more than 500 Allied aircraft, inflicting thousands of casualties.
World War II: The Second Happy Time of Hitler's submarines comes to an end, as the increasingly effective American convoy system compels them to return to the central Atlantic.
World War II: Battle of Cape Spada: The Royal Navy and the Regia Marina clash; the Italian light cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni sinks, with 121 casualties.
Field Marshal Ceremony: First occasion in World War II that Adolf Hitler appoints field marshals due to military achievements.
World War II: Army order 112 forms the Intelligence Corps of the British Army.
The rigid airship USS Macon surprised the USS Houston near Clipperton Island with a mail delivery for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, demonstrating its potential for tracking ships at sea.
World War I: Battle of Fromelles: British and Australian troops attack German trenches as part of the Battle of the Somme.
The first line of the Paris Métro opens for operation.
Brunel's steamship the SS Great Britain is launched, becoming the first ocean-going craft with an iron hull and screw propeller, becoming the largest vessel afloat in the world.
Representatives of the Iroquois Confederacy sign the Nanfan Treaty, ceding a large territory north of the Ohio River to England.
The attempt to install Lady Jane Grey as Queen of England collapses after only nine days.
Italian War of 1542–46: The first Siege of Boulogne begins.