In Portage, Wisconsin, convicted serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is clubbed to death by an inmate in the Columbia Correctional Institution gymnasium.

South Ossetia declares independence from Georgia.

Cold War: Velvet Revolution

South African Airways flight 295 crashes into the Indian Ocean, killing all 159 people on-board.

Over 250 years after their deaths, William Penn and his wife Hannah Callowhill Penn are made Honorary Citizens of the United States.

Air New Zealand Flight 901, a DC-10 operated sightseeing flight over Antarctica, crashes into Mount Erebus, killing all 257 people on board.

East Timor declares its independence from Portugal.

Last executions in Paris, of the Clairvaux Mutineers, Roger Bontems and Claude Buffet, guillotined at La Sante Prison. (Bontems had been found innocent of murder by the court, but as Buffet's accomplice is condemned to death anyway.) The chief executioner is Andre Obrecht.

Vietnam War: In response to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson's call for "more flags" in Vietnam, Philippines President Elect Ferdinand Marcos announces he will send troops to help fight in South Vietnam.

Vietnam War: National Security Council members agree to recommend that U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson adopt a plan for a two-stage escalation of bombing in North Vietnam.

Mariner program: NASA launches the Mariner 4 probe toward Mars.

Mauritania becomes independent of France.

Chad, the Republic of the Congo, and Gabon become autonomous republics within the French Community.

World War II: Tehran Conference

In Boston, Massachusetts, a fire in the Cocoanut Grove nightclub kills 491 people.

Ernie Nevers of the then Chicago Cardinals scores all of the Cardinals' points in this game as the Cardinals defeat the Chicago Bears 40-6.

Irish War of Independence: Kilmichael Ambush - The Irish Republican Army ambush a convoy of British Auxiliaries and kill seventeen.

Lady Astor is elected as a Member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. She is the first woman to sit in the House of Commons. (Countess Markiewicz, the first to be elected, refused to sit.)

Bucovina voted for the union with the Kingdom of Romania.

World War I: Following a war-induced closure in July, the New York Stock Exchange re-opens for bond trading.

Albania declares its independence from the Ottoman Empire.

Eleftherios Venizelos, leader of the Liberal Party, wins the Greek elections again.

In Haverhill, Massachusetts, scrap-metal dealer Louis B. Mayer opens his first movie theater.

Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith founds Sinn Féin as a political party with the main aim of establishing a dual monarchy in Ireland.

The first American automobile race takes place over the 54 miles from Chicago's Jackson Park to Evanston, Illinois. Frank Duryea wins in approximately 10 hours.

Women vote in a national election for the first time: the New Zealand general election.

American Civil War: In the Battle of Cane Hill, Union troops under General John Blunt defeat General John Marmaduke's Confederates.

Ka Lā Hui: Hawaiian Independence Day – The Kingdom of Hawaii is officially recognized by the United Kingdom and France as an independent nation.

Panama Independence Day: Panama separates from Spain and joins Gran Colombia.

''The Times'' in London is for the first time printed by automatic, steam powered presses built by the German inventors Friedrich Koenig and Andreas Friedrich Bauer, signaling the beginning of the availability of newspapers to a mass audience.

Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73, was premiered at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig.

The Treaty of Hopewell is signed.

Natchez Indians massacre 138 Frenchmen, 35 French women, and 56 children at Fort Rosalie, near the site of modern-day Natchez, Mississippi.

At Gresham College, 12 men, including Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, and Sir Robert Moray decide to found what is later known as the Royal Society.

In Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway pay a £40 bond for their marriage license.

After navigating through the South American strait, three ships under the command of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan reach the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first Europeans to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific.

Skanderbeg and his forces liberate Kruja in Middle Albania and raise the Albanian flag.

On the last day of the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II appoints Bishop Adhemar of Le Puy and Count Raymond IV of Toulouse to lead the First Crusade to the Holy Land.