Desmond Tutu is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Cardinal Karol Wojtyła is elected to the papacy as Pope John Paul II, he becomes the first non-Italian pontiff since 1523.
Henry Kissinger and Lê Đức Thọ are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Tommie Smith and John Carlos are ejected from the US Olympic team for participating in the Olympics Black Power salute.
Yasunari Kawabata becomes the first Japanese person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Cuban Missile Crisis begins: U.S. President John F. Kennedy is informed of photos taken on October 14 by a U-2 showing nuclear missiles (the crisis will last for 13 days starting from this point).
Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro delivers his "History Will Absolve Me" speech, and is sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment by the Fulgencio Batista government for leading an attack on the Moncada Barracks.
The first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan, is assassinated in Rawalpindi.
World War II: No. 603 Squadron RAF intercepts the first Luftwaffe raid on Britain.
Adolf Hitler delivers his first public address at a meeting of the German Workers' Party.
Margaret Sanger opens the first family planning clinic in the United States.
William Howard Taft and Porfirio Díaz hold the first summit between a U.S. and a Mexican president. They narrowly escape assassination.
The Partition of Bengal in India takes place.
A diplomatic incident between the United States and Chile occurred after U.S. sailors were attacked in Valparaíso, nearly leading to war.
Girton College, Cambridge is founded, becoming England's first residential college for women.
Queen's University is founded in the Province of Canada.
The Sixth Coalition attacks Napoleon in the four-day Battle of Leipzig.
War of the Third Coalition: Napoleon surrounds the Austrian army at Ulm.
French Revolution: Queen Marie Antoinette is executed.