Jessica Watson becomes the youngest person to sail, non-stop and unassisted around the world solo.

California becomes the second U.S. state after Massachusetts in 2004 to legalize same-sex marriage after the state's own Supreme Court rules a previous ban unconstitutional.

The United States government acknowledges the existence of the "Secret War" in Laos and dedicates the Laos Memorial in honor of Hmong and other "Secret War" veterans.

Edith Cresson becomes France's first female prime minister.

''Portrait of Doctor Gachet'' by Vincent van Gogh is sold for a record $82.5 million, the most expensive painting at the time.

Soviet war in Afghanistan: After more than eight years of fighting, the Red Army begins its withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The Soviet Union launches the Polyus prototype orbital weapons platform. It fails to reach orbit.

Ma'alot massacre: In an Arab terrorist attack and hostage taking at an Israeli school, a total of 31 people are killed, including 22 schoolchildren.

In Laurel, Maryland, Arthur Bremer shoots and paralyzes Alabama Governor George Wallace while he is campaigning to be become President.

The island of Okinawa, under U.S. military governance since its conquest in 1945, reverts to Japanese control.

Philip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green are killed at Jackson State University by police during student protests.

President Richard Nixon appoints Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington the first female United States Army Generals.

People's Park: California Governor Ronald Reagan has an impromptu student park owned by University of California at Berkeley fenced off from student anti-war protestors, sparking a riot called Bloody Thursday.

After a policy dispute, Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky of South Vietnam's ruling junta launches a military attack on the forces of General Ton That Dinh, forcing him to abandon his command.

Project Mercury: The launch of the final Mercury mission, Mercury-Atlas 9 with astronaut L. Gordon Cooper on board. He becomes the first American to spend more than a day in space.

The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 4.

The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 3.

At Malden Island in the Pacific, Britain tests its first hydrogen bomb in Operation Grapple. The device fails to detonate properly.

The Polish cultural attache in Paris, Czesław Miłosz, asks the French government for political asylum.

Following the demise of the British Mandate of Palestine, Egypt, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia invade the territory partitioned for the Arab state by the British Mandate of Palestine thus starting the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

World War II: The final skirmish in Europe is fought near Prevalje, Slovenia.

Joseph Stalin dissolves the Comintern (or ''Third International'').

World War II: in the United States, a bill creating the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) is signed into law.

McDonald's opens its first restaurant in San Bernardino, California.

World War II: After fierce fighting, the poorly trained and equipped Dutch troops surrender to Germany, marking the beginning of five years of occupation.

USS Sailfish (SS-192) recommissioned, originally the USS Squalus.

Amy Johnson arrives back in England after a record-breaking return flight to Cape Town

The Moscow Metro is opened to public.

Kārlis Ulmanis establishes an authoritarian government in Latvia.

The May 15 Incident: in an attempted Coup d'état, the Prime Minister of Japan Inukai Tsuyoshi is killed.

A fire at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio kills 123.

Mickey Mouse premiered in his first cartoon, Plane Crazy

Greek invasion of İzmir. During the invasion, the Greek army kills or wounds 350 Turks. Those responsible are punished by the Greek Commander Aristides Stergiades.

The Winnipeg General Strike begins. By 11:00 a.m., almost the whole working population of Winnipeg, Manitoba had walked off the job.

The United States Supreme Court declares Standard Oil to be an "unreasonable" monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and orders the company to be broken up.

Las Vegas, Nevada, is founded when 110 acres (0.4 km²), in what later would become downtown, are auctioned off.

The Russian minelayer ''Amur'' laid a minefield about 15 miles off Port Arthur and sank Japan's battleship Hatsuse, 15,000 tons, with 496 crew.

Woman's suffrage: in New York, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton form the National Woman's Suffrage Association.

American Civil War: Battle of New Market, Virginia

American Civil War: Battle of Resaca, Georgia ends.

President Abraham Lincoln signs a bill into law creating the United States Bureau of Agriculture. It is later renamed the United States Department of Agriculture.

Opening of the present Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London.

Rama IV is crowned King of Thailand.

The Bloody Island Massacre takes place in Lake County, CA, in which a large number of Pomo Indians in Lake County were slaughtered by a regiment of the United States Cavalry, led by Nathaniel Lyon.

Troops of the Two Sicilies take Palermo and crush the republican government of Sicily

Francis Baily observes "Baily's beads" during an annular eclipse.

Opening of the first private mental health hospital in the United States, the Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason (now Friends Hospital) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Paraguay declares independence from Spain.

George III survives two assassination attempts in one day.

First Coalition: Napoleon enters Milan in triumph.

Diego Marín Aguilera flies a glider for "about 360 meters", at a height of 5-6 meters, during one of the first attempted flights.

War of the First Coalition: France declares war on Kingdom of Sardinia.

Maximilien Robespierre proposes the Self-denying Ordinance.

American Revolution: the Virginia Convention instructs its Continental Congress delegation to propose a resolution of independence from Great Britain, paving the way for the United States Declaration of Independence.

Laredo, Texas is established by the Spaniards.

James Puckle, a London lawyer, patents the world's first machine gun.

The War of the Spanish Succession begins.

The Treaty of Westphalia signed.

Johannes Kepler confirms his previously rejected discovery of the third law of planetary motion (he first discovered it on March 8 but soon rejected the idea after some initial calculations were made).

Bartholomew Gosnold becomes the first European to see Cape Cod.

Mary, Queen of Scots, marries James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, her third husband.

Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, stands trial in London on charges of treason, adultery and incest. She is condemned to death by a specially-selected jury.

The battle of Frankenhausen ends the German Peasants' War.

Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ''ad exstirpanda'', which authorizes, but also limits, the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition.