2003 California recall: Then Governor of California Gray Davis announces that the state would face a record budget deficit of $35 billion, roughly double the figure reported during his reelection campaign one month earlier.

NASA launches into orbit the Terra platform carrying five Earth Observation instruments, including ASTER, CERES, MISR, MODIS and MOPITT.

HTML 4.0 is published by the World Wide Web Consortium.

The Oakland, California school board passes a resolution officially declaring "Ebonics" a language or dialect.

The European Community and the Soviet Union sign an agreement on trade and commercial and economic cooperation.

Larry Wall releases the first version of the Perl programming language.

Dominica joins the United Nations.

Soviet Soyuz Programme: ''Soyuz 13'', crewed by cosmonauts Valentin Lebedev and Pyotr Klimuk, is launched from Baikonur in the Soviet Union.

Vietnam War: President Richard Nixon announces that the United States will engage North Vietnam in Operation Linebacker II, a series of Christmas bombings, after peace talks collapsed with North Vietnam on the 13th.

Capitol Reef National Park is established in Utah.

Capital punishment in the United Kingdom: Home Secretary James Callaghan's motion to make permanent the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965, which had temporarily suspended capital punishment in England, Wales and Scotland for murder (but not for all crimes) for a period of five years.

Saturn's moon Epimetheus is discovered by Richard L. Walker.

Indonesia invades Netherlands New Guinea.

Japan joins the United Nations.

World War II: 77 B-29 Superfortress and 200 other aircraft of U.S. Fourteenth Air Force bomb Hankow, China, a Japanese supply base.

The Lanka Sama Samaja Party is founded in Ceylon.

The Chicago Bears defeat the Portsmouth Spartans 9-0 in the first ever NFL Championship Game. Because of a blizzard, the game was moved from Wrigley Field to the Chicago Stadium, the field measuring {{convert|80|yd}} long.

World War I: The Battle of Verdun ends when German forces under Chief of Staff Erich Von Falkenhayn are defeated by the French and British, and suffer 337,000 casualties.

U.S. President Woodrow Wilson marries Edith Bolling Galt Wilson while president of the United States.

The Piltdown Man, later discovered to be a hoax, is found in the Piltdown Gravel Pit, by Charles Dawson.

The Upper Ferntree Gully to Gembrook Narrow-gauge (2 ft 6 in or 762 mm) Railway (now the Puffing Billy Railway) in Victoria, Australia is opened for traffic.

Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat sets a new land speed record of {{convert|39.245|mi/h|km/h|abbr=on}} in a Jeantaud electric car. This is the first recognized land speed record.

Richard Wetherill and his brother in-law discover the ancient Indian ruins of Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde.

John Kehoe, the last of the Molly Maguires is executed in Pennsylvania.

The Al-Thani family become the rulers of the state of Qatar

American Civil War: In the Battle of Lexington, General Nathan Bedford Forrest defeats a Union force under Colonel Robert Ingersoll.

Surrender of the frigate ''La Lutine'' by French Royalists to Lord Hood; renamed {{HMS|Lutine|1779|6}}, she later becomes a famous treasure wreck.

New Jersey becomes the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

The United States celebrates its first Thanksgiving, marking the recent victory by the Americans over General John Burgoyne in the Battle of Saratoga in October.

Abel Tasman becomes first European to land in New Zealand.

The ''Mayflower'' lands in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts with 102 Pilgrims on board.

Kublai Khan renames his empire "Yuan" (元 yuán), officially marking the start of the Yuan Dynasty of Mongolia and China.