Armenian Journalist Hrant Dink is assassinated in front of his newspaper's office by 17 year old Turkish ultranationalist Ogün Samast.

The New Horizons probe is launched by NASA on the first mission to Pluto.

A Slovak Air Force Antonov An-24 crashes in Hungary.

British Aerospace agrees to acquire the defence subsidiary of the General Electric Company plc, forming BAE Systems in November 1999.

Yasser Arafat returns to Hebron after more than 30 years and joins celebrations over the handover of the last Israeli-controlled West Bank city.

The barge ''North Cape'' oil spill occurs as an engine fire forces the tugboat ''Scandia'' ashore on Moonstone Beach in South Kingstown, Rhode Island.

Czech Republic and Slovakia join the United Nations.

Gulf War: SCUD attack from Iraq causes 15 injuries in Israel.

The Apple Lisa, the first commercial personal computer from Apple Inc. to have a graphical user interface and a computer mouse, is announced.

Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie is arrested in Bolivia.

Iran Hostage Crisis: United States and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months of captivity.

The last Volkswagen Beetle made in Germany leaves VW's plant in Emden. Beetle production in Latin America would continue until 2003.

Snow falls in Miami, Florida. This is the only time in the history of the city that snow has fallen. It also fell in the Bahamas.

President Gerald Ford pardons Iva Toguri D'Aquino (a.k.a. "Tokyo Rose").

An earthquake strikes Himachal Pradesh, India

Student Jan Palach dies after setting himself on fire 3 days earlier in Prague's Wenceslas Square to protest the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union in 1968. His funeral turned into another major protest.

68% of all television sets in the United States are tuned in to ''I Love Lucy'' to watch Lucy give birth.

Cuba recognizes Israel.

General Douglas MacArthur establishes the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo to try Japanese war criminals.

World War II: Soviet forces liberate the Łódź ghetto. Out more than 200,000 inhabitants in 1940, less than 900 had survived the Nazi occupation.

World War II: Japanese forces invade Burma

Howard Hughes sets a new air record by flying from Los Angeles, California to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes, 25 seconds.

Coopers Inc. sells the world's first briefs.

The United States Senate votes against joining the League of Nations.

Finnish Civil War: The first serious battles between the Red Guards and the White Guard.

Silvertown explosion: 73 are killed and 400 injured in an explosion in a munitions plant in London.

German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann sends the Zimmermann Telegram to Mexico, proposing a German-Mexican alliance against the United States.

World War I: German zeppelins bomb the towns of Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn in the United Kingdom killing more than 20, in the first major aerial bombardment of a civilian target.

Georges Claude patents the neon discharge tube for use in advertising.

Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is formed.

Henrik Ibsen's play ''The Master Builder'' receives its premiere performance in Berlin.

The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires, built by Thomas Edison, begins service at Roselle, New Jersey.

Franco-Prussian War: Battle of St. Quentin is fought, resulting in a decisive Prussian victory.

American Civil War: Battle of Mill Springs

Giuseppe Verdi's opera ''Il Trovatore'' receives its premiere performance in Rome.

Captain Charles Wilkes circumnavigates Antarctica, claiming what became known as Wilkes Land for the United States.

The British East India Company captures Aden.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's ''Faust Part 1'' receives its premiere performance.

An army of 5,423 soldiers, led by General José de San Martín, crosses the Andes from Argentina to liberate Chile and then Peru.

Peninsular War: After a ten day siege, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, orders British soldiers of the Light and third divisions to storm Ciudad Rodrigo.

The United Kingdom occupies the Cape of Good Hope.

The Batavian Republic is proclaimed in the Netherlands bringing to an end the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands.

The second group of ships of the First Fleet arrives at Botany Bay.

John Wilkes is expelled from the British House of Commons for seditious libel.

San Agustin Church in Manila is officially completed; it is the oldest church still standing in the Philippines.

Sten Sture the Younger, the Regent of Sweden, is mortally wounded at the Battle of Bogesund.

Mirandola surrenders to the French.

Hundred Years' War: Rouen surrenders to Henry V of England completing his reconquest of Normandy.