India's Irfan Pathan becomes the first bowler to take a Test cricket hat-trick in the opening over of a match.

The first direct commercial flights from mainland China (from Guangzhou) to Taiwan since 1949 arrived in Taipei. Shortly afterwards, a China Airlines flight lands in Beijing.

In his State of the Union Address, President George W. Bush describes "regimes that sponsor terror" as an ''Axis of Evil'', in which he includes Iraq, Iran and North Korea.

Thousands of student protesters in Indonesia storm parliament and demand that President Abdurrahman Wahid resign due to alleged involvement in corruption scandals.

In Birmingham, Alabama, a bomb explodes at an abortion clinic, killing one and severely wounding another. Serial bomber Eric Robert Rudolph is suspected as the culprit.

President Jacques Chirac announces a "definitive end" to French nuclear weapons testing.

La Fenice, Venice's opera house, is destroyed by fire.

Hungary establishes diplomatic relations with South Korea, making it the first Eastern Bloc nation to do so

Final recording session of We Are The World, by the supergroup USA for Africa.

Brenda Spencer kills two people and wounds eight at the Grover Cleveland Elementary School shootings.

The first inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame are announced.

{{USS|Missouri|BB-63|6}} the last battleship commissioned by the United States Navy is launched.

World War II: The Battle of Cisterna takes place in central Italy.

World War II: Approximately 38 men, women, and children die in the Koniuchy massacre in Poland.

In Bologna, Italy, the Anatomical Theatre of the Archiginnasio is destroyed in an air-raid.

The first day of the Battle of Rennell Island, U.S. cruiser ''Chicago'' is torpedoed and heavily damaged by Japanese bombers.

Three trains on the Sakurajima Line, in Osaka, Japan, collide and explode while approaching Ajikawaguchi Station. 181 people are killed.

The first inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame are announced.

World War I: Paris is first bombed by German zeppelins.

The American League is organized in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with 8 founding teams.

Liliuokalani is proclaimed Queen of Hawaii, its last monarch.

Karl Benz patents the first successful gasoline-driven automobile.

Bear River Massacre.

Kansas is admitted as the 34th U.S. state.

Queen Victoria institutes the Victoria Cross.

Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 to the U.S. Congress.

"The Raven" is published in the ''New York Evening Mirror'', the first publication with the name of the author, Edgar Allan Poe

US President Andrew Jackson orders first use of federal soldiers to suppress a labor dispute.

France defeats Russia and Prussia in the Battle of Brienne.

Feodor III becomes Tsar of Russia.

Sergius III comes out of retirement to take over the papacy from the deposed antipope Christopher.