The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) becomes enforceable in the European Union.
Ireland votes to repeal the Eighth Amendment of their constitution that prohibits abortion in all but a few cases, choosing to replace it with the Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland.
Suspected Maoist rebels kill at least 28 people and injure 32 others in an attack on a convoy of Indian National Congress politicians in Chhattisgarh, India.
The SpaceX Dragon 1 becomes the first commercial spacecraft to successfully rendezvous and berth with the International Space Station.
Oprah Winfrey airs her last show, ending her 25-year run of The Oprah Winfrey Show.
North Korea allegedly tests its second nuclear device, after which Pyongyang also conducts several missile tests, building tensions in the international community.
NASA's Phoenix lander touches down in the Green Valley region of Mars to search for environments suitable for water and microbial life.
China Airlines Flight 611 disintegrates in mid-air and crashes into the Taiwan Strait, with the loss of all 225 people on board.
Erik Weihenmayer becomes the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest, in the Himalayas, with Dr. Sherman Bull.
Liberation Day of Lebanon: Israel withdraws its army from Lebanese territory (with the exception of the disputed Shebaa farms zone) 18 years after the invasion of 1982.
The United States House of Representatives releases the Cox Report which details China's nuclear espionage against the U.S. over the prior two decades.
A military coup in Sierra Leone replaces President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah with Major Johnny Paul Koroma.
Bangladesh is hit by a tropical cyclone and storm surge, which kills approximately 10,000 people.
Falklands War: HMS Coventry is sunk by Argentine Air Force A-4 Skyhawks.
In Riyadh, the Gulf Cooperation Council is created between Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
John Spenkelink, a convicted murderer, is executed in Florida; he is the first person to be executed in the state after the reintroduction of capital punishment in 1976.
American Airlines Flight 191: A McDonnell Douglas DC-10 crashes during takeoff at O'Hare International Airport, Chicago, killing all 271 on board and two people on the ground.
The first of a series of bombings orchestrated by the Unabomber detonates at Northwestern University resulting in minor injuries.
Star Wars (retroactively titled Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope) is released in US theaters.