Eliud Kipchoge from Kenya becomes the first person to run a marathon in less than two hours with a time of 1:59:40 in Vienna.
The United States announces its decision to withdraw from UNESCO. Israel immediately follows.
The European Union wins the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize.
The former Autonomous Soviet Republic of Abkhazia declares its independence from Georgia.
New Zealand holds its first general election under the new mixed-member proportional representation system, which led to Jim Bolger's National Party forming a coalition government with Winston Peters's New Zealand First.
Indian Airlines Flight 171 crashes at Santacruz Airport in Bombay, India, killing 95.
President Nixon nominates House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford as the successor to Vice President Spiro T. Agnew.
The 2,500 year celebration of the Persian Empire begins.
Vietnam War: Vietnamization continues as President Richard Nixon announces that the United States will withdraw 40,000 more troops before Christmas.
The Soviet Union launches the Voskhod 1 into Earth orbit as the first spacecraft with a multi-person crew, and the first flight without pressure suits.
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev pounds his shoe on a desk at the United Nations to protest a Philippine assertion.
At the national congress of the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance in Peru, a group of leftist radicals are expelled from the party who later form APRA Rebelde.
World War II: Desmond Doss is the first conscientious objector to receive the U.S. Medal of Honor.
The Lao Issara took control of Laos' government and reaffirmed the country's independence.
World War II: The Axis occupation of Athens comes to an end.
An iron lung respirator is used for the first time at Boston Children's Hospital.
World War I: The First Battle of Passchendaele takes place resulting in the largest single-day loss of life in New Zealand history.
World War I: British nurse Edith Cavell is executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape from occupied Belgium.
President Theodore Roosevelt officially renames the "Executive Mansion" to the White House.
The Pledge of Allegiance is first recited by students in many US public schools.