A coup d'état successfully overthrows Malagasy president Andry Rajoelina.
Eric Rudolph is charged with six bombings, including the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta, Georgia.
Yasser Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres receive the Nobel Peace Prize for their role in the establishment of the Oslo Accords and the framing of future Palestinian self government.
Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
U.S. President Ronald Reagan proclaims a war on drugs.
Vice President Hosni Mubarak is elected as the President of Egypt, one week after the assassination of Anwar Sadat.
The 6th Congress of the Workers' Party ended, having anointed North Korean President Kim Il Sung's son Kim Jong Il as his successor.
The first National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights draws approximately 100,000 people.
Apollo program: The first live television broadcast by American astronauts in orbit is performed by the Apollo 7 crew.
Jim Hines becomes the first man ever to break the so-called "ten-second barrier" in the 100-meter sprint with a time of 9.95 seconds.
Martin Luther King Jr. receives the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolence.
The 23rd Canadian Parliament becomes the only one to be personally opened by the Queen of Canada.
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, leader of India's Untouchable caste, converts to Buddhism along with 385,000 of his followers (see Neo-Buddhism).
World War II: Prisoners at Sobibor extermination camp covertly assassinate most of the on-duty SS officers and then stage a mass breakout.
World War II: The United States Eighth Air Force loses 60 of 291 B-17 Flying Fortresses during the Second Raid on Schweinfurt.
World War II: The Second Philippine Republic, a puppet state of Japan, is inaugurated with José P. Laurel as its president.
World War II: The German submarine U-69 (1940) sinks the Canadian passenger ferry SS Caribou approximately 20 nautical miles southwest of Port aux Basques, Newfoundland.
World War II: The Balham underground station disaster kills sixty-six people during the London Blitz.
World War II: The German submarine U-47 sinks the British battleship HMS Royal Oak within her harbour at Scapa Flow, Scotland.
The former and first President of Finland, K. J. Ståhlberg, and his wife, Ester Ståhlberg, are kidnapped from their home by members of the far-right Lapua Movement.