Elections are held to replace Yasser Arafat as head of the Palestine Liberation Organization. He is succeeded by Rawhi Fattouh.

Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement rebel group in Naivasha, Kenya.

Martyrs' Day: Several Panamanian youths try to raise the Panamanian flag on the U.S.-controlled Panama Canal Zone, leading to fighting between U.S. military and Panamanian civilians.

The United Nations headquarters officially opens in New York City.

Elizabeth "Betty" Short, the Black Dahlia, is last seen alive.

World War II: The United States invades Luzon in the Philippines.

World War II: The Greek ''Triton'' (S.112) sinks the Italian submarine ''Neghelli'' in Otranto.

World War II: First flight of the Avro Lancaster.

Juan de la Cierva makes the first autogyro flight.

Battle of Bear Valley: The last battle of the American Indian Wars.

World War I: the Battle of Rafa occurs near the Egyptian border with Palestine.

World War I: The Battle of Gallipoli concludes with an Ottoman Empire victory when the last Allied forces are evacuated from the peninsula.

Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc., the first historically black intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity to be officially recognized at Howard University is founded.

According to the Julian Calendar which is used at the time, Russian workers stage a march on the Winter Palace that ends in the massacre by Tsarist troops known as Bloody Sunday, setting off the Russian Revolution of 1905.

Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson, son of the famous poet Alfred Tennyson, becomes the second Governor-General of Australia.

New England Telephone and Telegraph installs the first battery-operated telephone switchboard in Lexington, Massachusetts.

The Great Gale of 1880 devastates parts of Oregon and Washington with high wind and heavy snow.

Umberto I becomes King of Italy.

American Civil War: the Battle of Fort Hindman occurs in Arkansas.

Mississippi becomes the second state to secede from the Union before the outbreak of the American Civil War.

American Civil War: The "Star of the West" incident occurs near Charleston, South Carolina. It is considered by some historians to be the "First Shots of the American Civil War".

Anson Jones, the last President of the Republic of Texas, commits suicide.

The Fort Tejon earthquake of California occurs, registering an estimated magnitude of 7.9.

The French Academy of Sciences announces the Daguerreotype photography process.

The Portuguese prince Pedro I of Brazil decides to stay in Brazil against the orders of the Portuguese king João VI, starting the Brazilian independence process.

Sir Humphry Davy tests the Davy lamp for miners at Hebburn Colliery.

Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson receives a state funeral and is interred in St Paul's Cathedral.

British Prime Minister William Pitt introduces income tax to raise funds for the war against Napoleon.

Jean-Pierre Blanchard becomes the first person to fly in a balloon in the United States.

Connecticut becomes the fifth state to be admitted to the United States.

In London, Philip Astley stages the first modern circus.

Afghans defeat Marathas in the Battle of Barari Ghat.

Judges' investigations for the trial of Joan of Arc begin in Rouen, France, the seat of the English occupation government.

The Jewish population of Basel, Switzerland, believed by the residents to be the cause of the ongoing Black Death, is rounded up and incinerated.

Byzantine Emperor Zeno is forced to flee his capital at Constantinople.