The United States suspends travel from Europe due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the House of Commons, the revised EU Withdrawal Bill was rejected by a margin of 149 votes.
US-Bangla Airlines Flight 211 crashes at Tribhuvan International Airport in Katmandu, killing 51 and injuring 20.
A gas explosion in the New York City neighborhood of East Harlem kills eight and injures 70 others.
A reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant explodes and releases radioactivity into the atmosphere a day after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.
Financier Bernie Madoff pleads guilty to one of the largest frauds in Wall Street's history.
In Mahmoudiyah, Iraq, 14-year-old Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi is raped and murdered by five American soldiers of the 502nd Infantry Regiment, who also murder both of her parents and her sister.
President of South Korea, Roh Moo-hyun, is impeached by its National Assembly, the first such impeachment in the nation's history.
Zoran Đinđić, Prime Minister of Serbia, is assassinated in Belgrade.
The World Health Organization officially release a global warning of outbreaks of Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
Former Warsaw Pact members the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland join NATO.
Several bombs explode in Mumbai, India, killing about 300 people and injuring hundreds more.
North Korea announces that it will withdraw from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and refuses to allow inspectors access to its nuclear sites.
Mauritius becomes a republic while remaining a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.
Tim Berners-Lee submits his proposal to CERN for an information management system, which subsequently develops into the World Wide Web.
The 1971 Turkish military memorandum is sent to the Süleyman Demirel government of Turkey and the government resigns.
Mauritius gains independence from the United Kingdom.
Suharto takes power from Sukarno when the Provisional People's Consultative Assembly inaugurate him as Acting President of Indonesia.
The Llandow air disaster kills 80 people when the aircraft they are travelling in crashes near Sigingstone, Wales. At the time this was the world's deadliest air disaster.
Cold War: The Truman Doctrine is proclaimed to help stem the spread of Communism.