Northern Illinois University shooting: a gunman opened fire in a lecture hall of the DeKalb County, Illinois university resulting in 6 fatalities (including gunman) and 18 injuries.

Seven people are killed and 151 wounded in a series of bombings by suspected Al-Qaeda-linked militants that hit the Philippines' Makati financial district in Metro Manila, Davao City, and General Santos City.

Lebanese self-made billionaire and business tycoon Rafik Hariri killed, along with 21 others, when explosives equivalent of around 1,000 kg of TNT were detonated as his motorcade drove near the St. George Hotel in Beirut.

In a suburb of Moscow, Russia, the roof of the Transvaal water park collapses, killing more than 25 people, and wounding more than 100 others.

''Tullaghmurray Lass'' sinks off the coast of Kilkeel, County Down, Northern Ireland killing three members of the same family on board.

The spacecraft ''NEAR Shoemaker'' enters orbit around asteroid 433 Eros, the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid.

China launches a Long March 3 rocket, carrying the Intelsat 708 satellite. The rocket flies off course 3 seconds after liftoff and crashes into a rural village.

92 people are killed aboard Indian Airlines Flight 605 at Bangalore, India.

The first of 24 satellites of the Global Positioning System are placed into orbit.

Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini issues a fatwa encouraging Muslims to kill the author of ''The Satanic Verses'', Salman Rushdie.

Union Carbide agrees to pay $470 million to the Indian government for damages it caused in the 1984 Bhopal Disaster.

United American Bank of Knoxville, Tennessee collapses. Its president, Jake Butcher is later convicted of fraud.

Stardust Disaster: A fire in a Dublin nightclub kills 48 people

In Kabul, Muslims kidnap the American ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs who is later killed during a gunfight between his kidnappers and police.

Australian currency is decimalised.

First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy takes television viewers on a tour of the White House.

Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized at the University of California.

The XX Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union begins in Moscow. On the last night of the meeting, Premier Nikita Khrushchev condemns Joseph Stalin's crimes in a secret speech.

The Asbestos Strike begins in Canada. The strike marks the beginning of the Quiet Revolution in Quebec.

The Knesset (Israeli parliament) convenes for the first time.

ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic computer, is unveiled.

The Bank of England is nationalized.

World War II: Mostar is liberated by Yugoslav partisans.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt meets with King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia aboard the USS ''Quincy'', officially starting the U.S.-Saudi diplomatic relationship.

World War II: Prague is bombed probably due to a mistake in the orientation of the pilots bombing Dresden.

World War II: On the first day of the bombing of Dresden, the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces begin fire-bombing Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony.

World War II: Anti-Japanese revolt on Java.

World War II: Tunisia Campaign

World War II: Rostov-on-Don, Russia is liberated.

Battle of Pasir Panjang contributes to the fall of Singapore.

Saint Valentine's Day massacre: Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone's gang, are murdered in Chicago, Illinois.

The International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is founded.

The League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago, Illinois.

The Polish-Soviet War begins.

The Soviet Union adopts the Gregorian calendar (on 1 February according to the Julian calendar).

In Groton, Connecticut, the first diesel-powered submarine is commissioned.

Arizona is admitted as the 48th U.S. state.

The United States Department of Commerce and Labor is established (later split into Department of Commerce and Department of Labor).

Second Boer War: In South Africa, 20,000 British troops invade the Orange Free State.

Voting machines are approved by the U.S. Congress for use in federal elections.

The War of the Pacific breaks out when Chilean armed forces occupy the Bolivian port city of Antofagasta.

Alexander Graham Bell applies for a patent for the telephone, as does Elisha Gray.

Oregon is admitted as the 33rd U.S. state.

Texas is linked by telegraph to the rest of the United States, with the completion of a connection between New Orleans and Marshall, Texas.

In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first serving President of the United States to have his photograph taken.

The original Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is formed in Kirtland, Ohio.

Ras Marye of Yejju marches into Tigray and defeats and kills Dejazmach Sabagadis in the Battle of Debre Abbay.

Karadjordje leads the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire.

Chief Justice John Marshall declares that any act of U.S. Congress that conflicts with the Constitution is void.

French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Cape St. Vincent (1797)|Battle of Cape St. Vincent

James Cook is killed by Native Hawaiians near Kealakekua on the Island of Hawaii.

The United States Flag is formally recognized by a foreign naval vessel for the first time, when French Admiral Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte rendered a nine gun salute to USS ''Ranger'', commanded by John Paul Jones.

Henry Pelham becomes British Prime Minister.

Thomas Cranmer is declared a heretic.

Approximately 2,000 Jews are burned to death by mobs or forcibly removed from the city of Strasbourg.

Pope Gregory VII excommunicates Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor.

Pope Benedict VIII recognizes Henry of Bavaria as King of Germany.

First known mention of Lithuania, in the annals of the monastery of Quedlinburg.

Charles the Bald and Louis the German swear the Oaths of Strasbourg in the French and German languages.