National Express has its worst ever coach crash just outside Heathrow Airport.

Flight 604, a Boeing 737 owned by Flash Airlines, an Egyptian airliner, plunges into the Red Sea, killing all 148 people on board.

Israel detains, and later expels, 14 members of Concerned Christians.

The Mars Polar Lander is launched.

The People's Republic of China announces it will spend $27.7 billion USD to fight erosion and pollution in the Yangtze and Yellow river valleys.

More than seven million people from the former Apartheid Homelands, receives South African citizenship.

An Aeroflot Tupolev TU-154 crashes and explodes after takeoff from Irkutsk, Russia, killing 125 people including one on the ground.

In Moscow, George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).

Former leader of Panama Manuel Noriega surrenders to American forces.

Margaret Thatcher becomes the longest-serving British Prime Minister in the 20th Century.

Apple Computer is incorporated.

Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro.

The SL-1, a government-run reactor near Idaho Falls, Idaho, leaks radiation, killing three workers.

The United States severs diplomatic relations with Cuba.

Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. State.

The West Indies Federation is formed.

The Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch.

A fire damages the top part of the Eiffel Tower.

Frances Bolton and her son, Oliver from Ohio, become the first mother and son to serve simultaneously in the U.S. Congress.

Proceedings of the U.S. Congress are televised for the first time.

World War II: Admiral Chester W Nimitz is placed in command of all U.S. Naval forces in preparation for planned assaults against Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Japan.

World War II: Top Ace Major Greg "Pappy" Boyington is shot down in his Corsair by Captain Masajiro Kawato flying a Zero.

The March of Dimes is established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Minnie D. Craig becomes the first female elected as Speaker of the North Dakota House of Representatives, the first female to hold a Speaker position anywhere in the United States.

Martial law is declared in Honduras to stop revolt by banana workers fired by United Fruit.

Benito Mussolini announces he is taking dictatorial powers over Italy.

British explorer Howard Carter discovers the sarcophagus of Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Kings, near Luxor, Egypt.

Turkey makes peace with Armenia.

The refracting telescope at the Lick Observatory, measuring 91 cm in diameter, is used for the first time. It was the largest telescope in the world at the time.

The construction of the Brooklyn Bridge begins.

Meiji Restoration in Japan: The Tokugawa shogunate is abolished; agents of Satsuma and Chōshū seize power.

American Civil War: Delaware votes not to secede from the United States.

Joseph Jenkins Roberts is sworn in as the first president of the independent African Republic of Liberia.

Stephen F. Austin receives a grant of land in Texas from the government of Mexico.

Austria, the United Kingdom, and France form a secret defensive alliance treaty against Prussia and Russia.

Sylhet District was established

American general George Washington defeats British general Charles Cornwallis at the Battle of Princeton.

Benning Wentworth issues the first of the New Hampshire Grants, leading to the establishment of Vermont.

Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther in the papal bull ''Decet Romanum Pontificem''.

Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine.

Joan of Arc is handed over to the Bishop Pierre Cauchon.