Delhi, India, is hit by a series of bomb blasts, resulting in 30 deaths and 130 injuries.
The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.
South Africa grants independence to the "homeland" of Venda (not recognised outside South Africa).
Martin Luther King Jr. addresses a crowd of 20,000 West Berliners on Sunday, in Waldbühne.
An appeals court orders the University of Mississippi to admit James Meredith, the first African-American student admitted to the segregated university.
The IBM 305 RAMAC is introduced, the first commercial computer to use disk storage.
Deputy Prime Minister of India Vallabhbhai Patel orders the Army to move into Hyderabad to integrate it with the Indian Union.
Margaret Chase Smith is elected United States senator, and becomes the first woman to serve in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the United States Senate.
World War II: Start of the Battle of Meligalas between the Greek Resistance forces of the Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS) and the collaborationist security battalions.
World War II: Second day of the Battle of Edson's Ridge in the Guadalcanal Campaign. U.S. Marines successfully defeat attacks by the Japanese with heavy losses for the Japanese forces.
Elizabeth McCombs becomes the first woman elected to the New Zealand Parliament.
The Santos-Dumont 14-bis makes a short hop, the first flight of a fixed-wing aircraft in Europe.
Mackinder, Ollier and Brocherel make the first ascent of Batian (5,199 m – 17,058 ft), the highest peak of Mount Kenya.
Hannibal Goodwin patents celluloid photographic film.
The Congress of the Confederation sets the date for the first presidential election in the United States, and New York City becomes the country's temporary capital.
American Revolutionary War: Franco-Spanish troops launch the unsuccessful "grand assault" during the Great Siege of Gibraltar.
Battle of the Plains of Abraham: the British defeat the French near Quebec City in the Seven Years' War, known in the United States as the French and Indian War.
Great Britain, Austria and the Kingdom of Sardinia sign the Treaty of Worms.
Ögedei Khan is proclaimed Khagan of the Mongol Empire in Kodoe Aral, Khentii: Mongolia.
Belisarius of the Byzantine Empire defeats Gelimer and the Vandals at the Battle of Ad Decimum, near Carthage, North Africa.