An explosion in a coal mine in Sago, West Virginia traps and kills 12 miners, while leaving one miner in critical condition.

Stardust successfully flies past Comet Wild 2, collecting samples that are returned to Earth.

Eduardo Duhalde is appointed interim President of Argentina by the Legislative Assembly.

Sila Calderón becomes the first female Governor of Puerto Rico

A brutal snowstorm smashes into the Midwestern United States, causing 14 inches (359 mm) of snow in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and 19 inches (487 mm) in Chicago, where temperatures plunge to -13 °F (-25 °C); 68 deaths are reported

President Richard Nixon signs a bill lowering the maximum U.S. speed limit to 55 MPH in order to conserve gasoline during an OPEC embargo

The second Ibrox disaster kills 66 fans at a Rangers-Celtic football match

Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and to orbit the Sun, is launched by the U.S.S.R.

Panamanian president Jose Antonio Remon is assassinated

Luis Muñoz Marín becomes the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico

World War II: Nuremberg (in German, Nürnberg) is severely bombed by Allied forces

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) convicts 33 members of a German spy ring headed by Fritz Joubert Duquesne in the largest espionage case in United States history—the Duquesne Spy Ring

World War II: Manila is captured by Japanese forces

World War II: German bombing severely damages the Llandaff Cathedral in Cardiff, Wales

Bruno Hauptmann goes on trial for the murder of Charles Lindbergh, Jr., infant son of aviator Charles Lindbergh

The second Palmer Raid takes place with another 6,000 suspected communists and anarchists arrested and held without trial. These raids take place in several U.S. cities.

Russo-Japanese War: The Russian garrison surrenders at Port Arthur, China

John Hay announces the Open Door Policy to promote trade with China

Amadeus I becomes King of Spain

The discovery of the planet Vulcan is announced at a meeting of the Académie des Sciences in Paris

Re-establishment of British rule on the Falklands.

The British Institution of Civil Engineers is founded

Big Bottom massacre in the Ohio Country, marking the beginning of the Northwest Indian War

Georgia becomes the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution

American Revolutionary War: American forces under the command of George Washington repulsed a British attack at the Battle of the Assunpink Creek near Trenton, New Jersey

Reconquista: the emirate of Granada, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, surrenders

Mercurius becomes Pope John II, the first pope to adopt a new name upon elevation to the papacy

The Alamanni cross the frozen Rhine River in large numbers, invading the Roman Empire