The 72 year run of the soap opera ''The Guiding Light'' ends as its final episode is broadcast.

Buddhist monks join anti-government protesters in Myanmar, starting what some called the Saffron Revolution.

Pervez Musharraf announces that he will step down as army chief and restore civilian rule to Pakistan, but only after he is re-elected president.

Right wing protesters riot the building of the Hungarian Television in Budapest, Hungary, one day after an audio tape is made public, in which Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány admitted he and his party lied during the 2006 general elections.

First mailing of anthrax letters from Trenton, New Jersey in the 2001 anthrax attacks.

ICANN is formed.

United States media magnate Ted Turner donates USD $1 billion to the United Nations.

An explosion rocks Giant Mine at the height of a labor dispute, killing 9 replacement workers.

Yugoslavia begins a naval blockade of 7 Adriatic port cities.

Liechtenstein becomes a member of the United Nations.

End of pro-democracy uprisings in Myanmar after a bloody military coup by the State Law and Order Restoration Council. Thousands, mostly monks and civilians (primarily students) are killed by the Tatmadaw.

Joe Kittinger completes the first solo balloon crossing of the Atlantic.

Christian militia begin killing six-hundred Palestinians in Lebanon.

Assemblée Nationale votes to abolish capital punishment in France.

Soyuz 38 carries 2 cosmonauts (including 1 Cuban) to Salyut 6 space station.

Leaders of Israel and Egypt reach a settlement for the Middle East at Camp David.

Voyager I takes first photograph of the Earth and the Moon together.

Patty Hearst is arrested after a year on the FBI Most Wanted List.

Hurricane Fifi strikes Honduras with 110 mph winds, killing 5,000 people.

The Bahamas, East Germany and West Germany are admitted to the United Nations.

North Vietnamese Army begins infiltration of South Vietnam.

Constantine II of Greece marries Danish princess Anne-Marie.

Burundi, Jamaica, Rwanda and Trinidad and Tobago are admitted to the United Nations.

U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld dies in a plane crash while attempting to negotiate peace in the war-torn Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Fidel Castro arrives in New York City as the head of the Cuban delegation to the United Nations.

Vanguard 3 is launched into Earth orbit.

Margaret Chase Smith of Maine becomes the first woman elected to the US Senate without completing another senator's term, when she defeats Democratic opponent Adrian Scolten.

Communist Madiun uprising in Dutch Indies.

The United States Air Force becomes an independent branch of the United States armed forces.

General Douglas MacArthur moves his command headquarters to Tokyo.

World War II: The British submarine {{HMS|Tradewind}} torpedoes Junyō Maru, 5,600 killed.

World War II: Adolf Hitler orders the deportation of Danish Jews.

World War II: The Jews of Minsk are massacred at Sobibór.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is authorized.

World War II: Italian troops conquer Sidi Barrani.

World War II: Polish government of Ignacy Mościcki flees to Romania.

William Joyce makes his first Nazi propaganda broadcast.

The USSR is admitted to League of Nations.

Actress Peg Entwistle commits suicide by jumping from the letter "H" in the Hollywood sign.

The Mukden Incident gives Japan the pretext to invade and occupy Manchuria.

Juan de la Cierva makes the first autogyro crossing of the English Channel.

The Columbia Broadcasting System goes on the air.

Hungary is admitted to League of Nations.

Fritz Pollard becomes the first African-American to play professional football for a major team, the Akron Pros.

The Netherlands gives women the right to vote.

World War I: South African troops land in German South West Africa.

The Irish Home Rule Act becomes law, but is delayed until after World War I.

Russian Premier Peter Stolypin is shot at the Kiev Opera House.

In Amsterdam, 25,000 demonstrate for general suffrage.

A typhoon with tsunami kills an estimated 10,000 people in Hong Kong.

Fashoda Incident

Daniel David Palmer gives the first chiropractic adjustment.

Booker T. Washington delivers the "Atlanta Compromise" address.

Riots break out in Montreal to protest against compulsory smallpox vaccination.

The Pacific Stock Exchange opens.

The Blackpool Illuminations are switched on for the first time.

The Panic of 1873 begins.

King Oscar II accedes to the throne of Sweden-Norway.

Old Faithful Geyser is observed and named by Henry D. Washburn during the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition to Yellowstone.

First publication of ''The New-York Daily Times'', which later becomes ''The New York Times''.

The U.S. Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.

The Anti-Corn Law League is established by Richard Cobden.

Tiffany and Co. (first named Tiffany & Young) is founded by Charles Lewis Tiffany and Teddy Young in New York City. The store is called a "stationery and fancy goods emporium".

The 1812 Fire of Moscow dies down after destroying more than three quarters of the city. Napoleon returns from the Petrovsky Palace to the Moscow Kremlin, spared from the fire.

First Government Junta in Chile. Though supposed to rule only in the absence of the king, it is in fact the first step towards independence from Spain, and is commemorated as such.

The Royal Opera House in London opens.

The first cornerstone of the Capitol building is laid by George Washington.

The British capture Quebec City.

The Treaty of Belgrade is signed, ceding Belgrade to the Ottoman Empire.

New Hampshire becomes a county of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II of Austria declares war on France.

Christopher Columbus lands at Costa Rica on his fourth, and final, voyage.

In the Battle of Chojnice, the Polish army is defeated by the Teutonic army during the Thirteen Years' War.

Philip Augustus becomes king of France.

Constantine the Great decisively defeats Licinius in the Battle of Chrysopolis, establishing Constantine's sole control over the Roman Empire.

Nerva is proclaimed Roman Emperor after Domitian is assassinated.