A new constitution is signed by Iraq's Governing Council.

The Supreme Court of the United States upholds the murder convictions of Timothy McVeigh for the Oklahoma City bombing.

A failed assassination attempt on Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah in Beirut, Lebanon, kills at least 45 and injures 175 others.

President Ronald Reagan calls the Soviet Union an "evil empire".

Philips demonstrates the Compact Disc publicly for the first time.

The first radio episode of ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'', by Douglas Adams, is transmitted on BBC Radio 4.

Charles de Gaulle Airport opens in Paris, France.

A bomb planted by young Irish protesters destroys Nelson's Pillar in Dublin.

The Ba'ath Party comes to power in Syria in a Coup d'état by a clique of quasi-leftist Syrian Army officers calling themselves the National Council of the Revolutionary Command.

Egypt re-opens the Suez Canal after the Suez Crisis.

The 1957 Georgia Memorial to Congress, which petitions the U.S. Congress to declare the ratification of the 14th & 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution null and void, is adopted by the state of Georgia.

Ghana joins the United Nations.

Mildred Gillars ("Axis Sally") is condemned to prison on count of treason

World War II: The Dutch surrender to Japanese forces on Java.

Daytona Beach Road Course holds their first oval stock car race.

The Castle Gate mine disaster kills 172 coal miners near Castle Gate, Utah.

Spanish Premier Eduardo Dato Iradier is assassinated while exiting the parliament building in Madrid.

International Women's Day is launched in Copenhagen, Denmark, by Clara Zetkin, leader of the Women's Office for the Social Democratic Party in Germany.

American Civil War: The iron-clad {{Ship|CSS|Virginia}} (formerly {{USS|Merrimack|1855|6}}) is launched at Hampton Roads, Virginia.

King Oscar I ascends to the thrones of Sweden and Norway.

The New York Stock Exchange is founded.

Gnadenhütten massacre: Ninety-six Native Americans in Gnadenhutten, Ohio, who had converted to Christianity are killed by Pennsylvania militiamen in retaliation for raids carried out by other Indians.

Regiments from Ansbach and Bayreuth, sent to support Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War, mutiny in the town of Ochsenfurt.

Thomas Paine's "African Slavery in America," the first article in the American colonies calling for the emancipation of slaves and the abolition of slavery, is published.

The Safavid Empire of Iran is defeated by an army from Afghanistan at The Battle of Gulnabad, pushing Iran into anarchy.

Anne Stuart, sister of Mary II, becomes Queen regnant of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

John Casor becomes the first legally-recognized slave in Britain's North American colonies.

Alfonso VII is proclaimed king of Castile and León, after the death of his mother Urraca.

Ferdowsi completes his Shāhnāmeh.