Volcanic ash from the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland leads to the closure of airspace over most of Europe.

An Air China Boeing 767-200, flight CA129 crashes into a hillside during heavy rain and fog near Busan, South Korea, killing 128.

Representatives of 124 countries and the European Communities sign the Marrakesh Agreements revising the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and initiating the World Trade Organization (effective January 1, 1995).

The National Assembly of Vietnam adopts the 1992 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

Upon Hu Yaobang's death, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 begin in the People's Republic of China.

Hillsborough disaster: A human crush occurs at Hillsborough Stadium, home of Sheffield Wednesday, in the FA Cup Semi Final, resulting in the deaths of 96 Liverpool F.C. fans.

The United States launches Operation El Dorado Canyon, its bombing raids against Libyan targets in response to a bombing in West Germany that killed two U.S. servicemen.

A disastrous earthquake (of M 7.1) occurs on Montenegro coast.

During the Cambodian Civil War, massacres of the Vietnamese minority results in 800 bodies flowing down the Mekong River into South Vietnam.

Walter O'Malley's Los Angeles Dodgers host the first Major League Baseball game played on the West Coast of the United States.

White Rock, British Columbia officially separates from Surrey, British Columbia and is incorporated as a new city.

McDonald's restaurant dates its founding to the opening of a franchised restaurant by Ray Kroc, in Des Plaines, Illinois

The maiden flight of the B-52 Stratofortress

Jackie Robinson debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking baseball's color line.

The Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated.

The George Cross is awarded to "to the island fortress of Malta

In the Belfast Blitz, two-hundred bombers of the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) attack Belfast, Northern Ireland killing one thousand people.

The Allies begin their attack on the Norwegian town of Narvik which is occupied by Nazi Germany.

Roerich Pact signed in Washington D.C.

Rand McNally publishes its first road atlas.

Insulin becomes generally available for use by people with diabetes.

Black Friday: mine owners announce more wage and price cuts, leading to the threat of a strike all across England.

Two security guards are murdered during a robbery in South Braintree, Massachusetts. Anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti would be convicted of and executed for the crime, amid much controversy.

The British passenger liner, the {{RMS|Titanic}}, sinks in the North Atlantic at 2:20 a.m., two and a half hours after hitting an iceberg. 1,517 people are killed.

The General Electric Company is formed. right disaster.]]

Abraham Lincoln dies without regaining consciousness after being shot the previous evening by actor John Wilkes Booth.

William Wordsworth and his sister, Dorothy see a "long belt" of daffodils, inspiring the former to pen ''I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud''.

Preliminary articles of peace ending the Revolutionary War are ratified.

Samuel Johnson's ''A Dictionary of the English Language'' is published in London.

Premiere in London of ''Serse'', an Italian opera by George Frideric Handel.

Pocotaligo Massacre triggers the start of the Yamasee War in colonial South Carolina.

Battle of Rain; Swedes under Gustavus Adolphus defeat the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years' War.

Battle of Formigny: Toward the end of the Hundred Years' War, the French attack and nearly annihilate English forces, ending English domination in Northern France.