Dendermonde nursery attack occurred in Dendermonde, Belgium.

Final communication between Earth and Pioneer 10

Reporter Daniel Pearl is kidnapped in Karachi, Pakistan and is subsequently murdered .

"American Taliban" John Walker Lindh returns to the United States in FBI custody.

Antonis Daglis, a 23-year-old Greek truck driver is sentenced to thirteen consecutive life sentences, plus 25 years for the serial slayings of three women and the attempted murder of six others.

Madeleine Albright becomes the first woman to serve as United States Secretary of State.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts its first members: Little Richard, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley.

O.J. Simpson becomes the first Heisman Trophy winner elected to the Football Hall of Fame.

A volcanic eruption devastates Heimaey in the Vestmannaeyjar chain of islands off the south coast of Iceland.

President Richard Nixon announces that a peace accord has been reached in Vietnam.

North Korea seizes the {{USS|Pueblo|AGER-2}}, claiming the ship had violated their territorial waters while spying.

Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Ivory Coast are established.

The 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting the use of poll taxes in national elections, is ratified.

Guinea-Bissau War of Independence offially begins when PAIGC guerrilla fighters attacked the Portuguese army stationed in Tite.

The bathyscaphe USS ''Trieste'' breaks a depth record by descending to 10,911 m (35,798 feet) in the Pacific Ocean.

Overthrow in Venezuela of Marcos Pérez Jiménez

The Knesset passes a resolution that states Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.

World War II: Karl Dönitz launches Operation Hannibal.

World War II: The Battle of Mount Austen, the Galloping Horse, and the Sea Horse on Guadalcanal during the Guadalcanal campaign ends.

Duke Ellington plays at Carnegie Hall in New York City for the first time.

World War II: Australian and American forces finally defeat the Japanese army in Papua. This turning point in the Pacific War marks the beginning of the end of Japanese aggression.

World War II: Troops of Montgomery's 8th Army capture Tripoli in Libya from the German-Italian Panzer Army.

Charles Lindbergh testifies before the U.S. Congress and recommends that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.

In Moscow, 17 leading Communists go on trial accused of participating in a plot led by Leon Trotsky to overthrow Joseph Stalin's regime and assassinate its leaders.

The Netherlands refuses to surrender ex-Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany to the Allies.

The International Opium Convention is signed at The Hague.

Charles Curtis of Kansas becomes the first Native American U.S. Senator.

Ålesund Fire: the Norwegian coastal town Ålesund is devastated by fire, leaving 10,000 people homeless and one person dead. Kaiser Wilhelm II funds the rebuilding of the town in Jugendstil style.

The Battle of Spion Kop between the forces of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State and British forces during the Second Boer War resulted in a British defeat.

Emilio Aguinaldo is sworn in as President of the First Philippine Republic.

Elva Zona Heaster is found dead in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. The resulting murder trial of her husband is perhaps the only case in United States history where the alleged testimony of a ghost helped secure a conviction.

Anglo-Zulu War: the Battle of Rorke's Drift ends.

In Montana, U.S. cavalrymen kill 173 Native Americans, mostly women and children, in the Marias Massacre.

The first bridge over the Mississippi River opens in what is now Minneapolis, Minnesota, a crossing made today by the Father Louis Hennepin Bridge.

Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her M.D. by the Medical Institute of Geneva, New York, becoming the United States' first female doctor.

Second Partition of Poland: Russia and Prussia partition Poland for the second time.

Georgetown College, the first Roman Catholic college in the United States, is founded in Georgetown, Maryland (now a part of Washington, D.C.)

The Principality of Liechtenstein is created within the Holy Roman Empire.

Blaise Pascal publishes the first of his ''Lettres provinciales''.

The Union of Utrecht forms a Protestant republic in the Netherlands.

The Royal Exchange opens in London.

The assassination of regent James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray throws Scotland into civil war.

The deadliest earthquake in history, the Shaanxi earthquake, hits Shaanxi province, China. The death toll may have been as high as 830,000.

Having published nothing for eleven years, François Rabelais publishes the ''Tiers Livre'', his sequel to Gargantua and Pantagruel.

Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII of England, discovers herself pregnant.

Henry VIII of England, then 18 years old, appears incognito in the lists at Richmond, and is applauded for his jousting before he reveals his identity.

In a coronation ceremony, Zhu Yuanzhang ascends to the throne of China as the Hongwu Emperor, initiating Ming Dynasty rule over China that would last for three centuries.

In China, the war elephant corps of the Southern Han are soundly defeated at Shao by crossbow fire from Song Dynasty troops.

Roman Emperor Theodosius I proclaims his nine year old son Honorius co-emperor.