The Brazil national football team suffers its joint-worst defeat, losing 7–1 to Germany in the semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup, in a match dubbed the Mineiraço.
West Germany win the FIFA World Cup final against defending champions Argentina, with Andreas Brehme scoring the game's only goal.
The Island Express train travelling from Bangalore to Kanyakumari derails on the Peruman bridge and falls into Ashtamudi Lake, Kerala in India killing 105 passengers and injuring over 200 more.
A failed assassination attempt against Iraqi president Saddam Hussein results in the Dujail Massacre over the next several months.
The inaugural 1980 State of Origin game is won by Queensland who defeat New South Wales 20–10 at Lang Park.
Richard Nixon delivers a special congressional message enunciating Native American self-determination as official US Indian policy, leading to the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975.
The United States Air Force accepts its first female recruits into a program called the Women's Air Force (WAF).
Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan sign the Treaty of Saadabad.
The first rugby union test match between the Wallabies of Australia and the Springboks of South Africa is played at Newlands Stadium in Cape Town.
Henrique Mitchell de Paiva Couceiro leads an unsuccessful royalist attack against the First Portuguese Republic in Chaves.
The first issue of The Wall Street Journal is published.
The Hamburg massacre prior to the 1876 United States presidential election results in the deaths of six African-Americans of the Republican Party, along with one white assailant.
The Perry Expedition arrives in Edo Bay with a treaty requesting trade.
Church bells (possibly including the Liberty Bell) are rung after John Nixon delivers the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence of the United States.
Reverend Jonathan Edwards preaches to his congregation in Enfield, Connecticut his most famous sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"; an influence for the First Great Awakening.
Vasco da Gama sets sail on the first direct European voyage to India.