{{USS|Carter Hall|LSD-50|6}} engages pirates after they board the Danish ship ''Danica White'' off the coast of Somalia.

The union of Serbia and Montenegro comes to an end with Montenegro's formal declaration of independence.

Eschede train disaster: an ICE high speed train derails in Lower Saxony, Germany, causing 101 deaths.

Aboriginal Land Rights are granted in Australia in Mabo v Queensland (1988), a case brought by Eddie Mabo.

Mount Unzen erupts in Kyūshū, Japan, killing 43 people, all of them either researchers or journalists.

SkyDome is officially opened in Toronto, Ontario

The government of China sends troops to force protesters out of Tiananmen Square after seven weeks of occupation.

The Indian Army storms the Golden Temple (Harmandir Sahib), the most sacred shrine of Sikhism, near Amritsar.

The Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov, is shot on a London street. He survives but is permanently paralysed.

The 1980 Grand Island tornado outbreak. Seven tornadoes hit Grand Island, Nebraska takes five lives, 357 single-family homes, 33 mobile homes, 85 apartments, 49 businesses and $300 million in damages all told, according to National Weather Service and American Red Cross statistics on the deadly storm.

A blowout at the Ixtoc I oil well in the southern Gulf of Mexico causes at least 3,000,000 barrels of oil to be spilled into the waters, the worst oil spill ever recorded

A Soviet supersonic Tupolev Tu-144 crashes near Goussainville, France, killing 14, the first crash of a supersonic passenger aircraft.

Melbourne-Evans collision: Off the coast of South Vietnam, the Australian aircraft carrier {{HMAS|Melbourne|R21|6}} cuts the U.S. Navy destroyer {{USS|Frank E. Evans|DD-754|6}} in half.

Valerie Solanas, author of ''SCUM Manifesto'', attempts to assassinate Andy Warhol by shooting him three times.

Launch of ''Gemini 4'', the first multi-day space mission by a NASA crew. Crew-member Ed White performs the first American spacewalk.

A Northwest Airlines DC-7 crashes in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of British Columbia, killing 101.

The Buddhist crisis: Soldiers of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam attack protesting Buddhists in Huế, South Vietnam, with liquid chemicals from tear gas grenades, causing 67 people to be hospitalised for blistering of the skin and respiratory ailments.

An Air France Boeing 707 charter, Chateau de Sully crashes after an aborted takeoff from Paris-Orly Airport, killing 130.

British Railways renames 'Third Class' passenger facilities as 'Second Class' (Second Class facilities had been abolished in 1875, leaving just First Class and Third Class).

First successful ascent of an Eight-thousander; Annapurna was summited by Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal

World War II: The Wehrmacht razes the Greek village of Kandanos to the ground, killing 180 of its inhabitants.

World War II: The Battle of Dunkirk ends with a German victory and with Allied forces in full retreat.

World War II: The Luftwaffe bombs Paris.

The Duke of Windsor marries Wallis Simpson.

One thousand unemployed Canadian workers board freight cars in Vancouver, British Columbia, beginning a protest trek to Ottawa, Ontario.

Lou Gehrig and teammate Tony Lazzeri hit four home runs in one game, and hit for the natural cycle, respectively. These two feats are both less common than a perfect game, which has occurred twenty one times in one hundred and twenty years.

The National Defense Act is signed into law, increasing the size of the United States National Guard by 450,000 men.

The Reserve Officer Training Corps or ROTC is established by the U.S. Congress.

The first long-distance electric power transmission line in the United States is completed, running 14 miles between a generator at Willamette Falls and downtown Portland, Oregon.

The coast to coast Canadian Pacific Railway is completed.

The poem "Casey at the Bat", by Ernest Lawrence Thayer, is published in the ''San Francisco Examiner''.

In the last military engagement fought on Canadian soil, Cree leader Big Bear escapes the North West Mounted Police.

The Fenians are driven out of Fort Erie, Ontario, into the United States.

American Civil War: Battle of Cold Harbor

American Civil War: Battle of Philippi (also called the Philippi Races) – Union forces rout Confederate troops in Barbour County, Virginia, now West Virginia, in first land battle of the War.

The traditional founding date of Kansas City, Missouri. This was the date on which it was first incorporated by Jackson County, Missouri, as the "City of Kansas".

In Humen, China, Lin Tse-hsü destroys 1.2 million kg of opium confiscated from British merchants, providing Britain with a ''casus belli'' to open hostilities, resulting in the First Opium War.

U.S. President John Adams takes up residence in Washington, D.C. (in a tavern because the White House was not yet completed).

Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo is founded in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.

James Stuart, Duke of York (later to become King James II of England) defeats the Dutch fleet off the coast of Lowestoft.

Pope Alexander VII appoints François de Laval vicar apostolic in New France.

The Dutch West India Company receives a charter for New Netherlands.

Construction of the oldest stone church in French North America, Notre-Dame-des-Anges, begins in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.

Samuel de Champlain completes his third voyage to New France at Tadoussac, Quebec.

DeSoto claims Florida for Spain.

Treaty of Novgorod delineates borders between Russia and Norway in Finnmark.

French scholar Peter Abelard is found guilty of heresy.

First Crusade: Antioch falls to the crusaders after an eight-month siege.

Roman usurper Nepotianus, of the Constantinian dynasty, proclaims himself Roman Emperor, entering Rome at the head of a group of gladiators.