US President George W. Bush announces his support for federal funding of limited research on embryonic stem cells.

Russian President Boris Yeltsin fires his Prime Minister, Sergei Stepashin, and for the fourth time fires his entire cabinet.

The Diet of Japan enacts a law establishing the Hinomaru and Kimi Ga Yo as the official national flag and national anthem.

The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan loses a 38-year hold on national leadership.

Wayne Gretzky is traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings in one of the most controversial player transactions in ice hockey history, upsetting many Canadians so much that some considered him a "traitor" to his home country.

The military-controlled Government of Uruguay announces that it will return the nation to civilian rule through general elections in 1981 for a President and Congress.

As a direct result of the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon becomes the first President of the United States to resign from office. His Vice President, Gerald Ford, becomes president.

Internment in Northern Ireland: British security forces arrest hundreds of nationalists and detain them without trial in Long Kesh prison. Twenty people die in the riots that follow.

Members of a cult led by Charles Manson brutally murder pregnant actress Sharon Tate (wife of Roman Polanski), coffee heiress Abigail Folger, Polish actor Wojciech Frykowski, men's hairstylist Jay Sebring and recent high-school graduate Steven Parent.

Singapore is expelled from Malaysia and becomes the first and only country to date to gain independence unwillingly.

A fire at a Titan missile base near Searcy, Arkansas kills 53 construction workers.

World War II: Nagasaki is devastated when an atomic bomb, ''Fat Man'', is dropped by the United States B-29 ''Bockscar''. 39,000 people are killed outright.

The United States Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council release posters featuring Smokey Bear for the first time.

Continuation war: The Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive, the largest offensive launched by Soviet Union against Finland during the Second World War, ends to a strategic stalemate. Both Finnish and Soviet troops at the Finnish front dug to defensive positions, and the front remains stable until the end of the war.

Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi is arrested in Bombay by British forces, launching the Quit India Movement.

World War II: Battle of Savo Island

Summer Olympic Games: 1936 Summer Olympics|Games of the XI Olympiad

A train robbery takes place in Kakori, near Lucknow, India

The first Boy Scout encampment concludes at Brownsea Island in southern England.

Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark are crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

Thomas Edison receives a patent for a two-way telegraph.

Indian Wars: Battle of Big Hole

American Civil War: Battle of Cedar Mountain

Henry David Thoreau published ''Walden''.

The Webster-Ashburton Treaty is signed, establishing the United States-Canada border east of the Rocky Mountains.

Indian Wars: the Creek sign the Treaty of Fort Jackson, giving up huge parts of Alabama and Georgia.

Napoleon annexes Westphalia as part of the First French Empire.

Opening of the Sistine Chapel in Rome with the celebration of a Mass.

Quilon, the first Indian Christian Diocese, is erected by Pope John XXII; the French-born Jordanus is appointed the first Bishop.

Construction of the campanile of the cathedral of Pisa (now known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa) begins; it will take two centuries to complete.

Bulgaria is founded as a Khanate on the south bank of the Danube after defeating the Byzantine armies of Emperor Constantine IV south of the Danube delta.

Gothic War (376-382)|Gothic War: Battle of Adrianople