A student at Amador Valley High School commits suicide by jumping in front of a Union Pacific Railroad freight train traumatizing thousands.

NASA's Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system.

The Oklahoma City bombing museum is dedicated at the Oklahoma City National Memorial.

President Bill Clinton issues a posthumous pardon for U.S. Army Lt. Henry Ossian Flipper.

The Soviet Union launches its Mir spacecraft. Remaining in orbit for 15 years, it is occupied for 10 of those years.

Akkaraipattu massacre: the Sri Lankan Army massacres 80 Tamil farm workers the eastern province of Sri Lanka.

Iberia Airlines Boeing 727 crashes into Mount Oiz in Spain, killing 148.

Artificial heart recipient William J. Schroeder becomes the first such patient to leave hospital.

Egyptian forces raid Larnaca International Airport in an attempt to intervene in a hijacking, without authorisation from the Republic of Cyprus authorities. The Cypriot National Guard and Police forces kill 15 Egyptian commandos and destroy the Egyptian C-130 transport plane in open combat.

Executive Order 9066 is rescinded by President Gerald R. Ford's Proclamation 4417

The Asama-Sansō hostage standoff begins in Japan.

The publication of Betty Friedan's ''The Feminine Mystique'' reawakens the Feminist Movement in the United States as women's organizations and consciousness-raising groups spread.

The United Kingdom grants Cyprus independence, which is then formally proclaimed on August 16, 1960.

Censorship: Georgia approves the first literature censorship board in the United States.

Ezra Pound is awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry by the Bollingen Foundation and Yale University.

World War II: Battle of Iwo Jima

World War II: Battle of the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia begins.

World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the executive order 9066, allowing the United States military to relocate Japanese-Americans to Japanese internment camps.

World War II: nearly 250 Japanese warplanes attack the northern Australian city of Darwin killing 243 people.

During a public ceremony at the Viceregal Palace (the former Imperial residence) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, two Eritrean nationalists attempt to kill viceroy Rodolfo Graziani with a number of grenades.

The Enigma tornado outbreak occurs.

Thomas Edison patents the phonograph.

Knights of Pythias are founded in Washington, D.C. by Justus H. Rathbone.

Serfdom is abolished in Russia.

Daniel E. Sickles, NY congressman, is acquitted of murder on grounds of temporary insanity. This is the 1st time this defense is successfully used in the United States.

The Phi Kappa Psi fraternity is founded at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania.

The first group of rescuers reaches the Donner Party.

In Austin, Texas the newly formed Texas state government is officially installed. The Republic of Texas government officially transfers power to the State of Texas government following Texas' annexation by the United States.

British explorer William Smith discovers the South Shetland Islands, and claims them in the name of King George III.

In Alabama, Former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr is arrested for treason and confined to Fort Stoddert.

England and the Netherlands sign the Treaty of Westminster, ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War. A provision of the agreement transfers the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam to England, and it is renamed New York.

The Peruvian stratovolcano Huaynaputina explodes in the most violent eruption in the recorded history of South America.

Having already inherited the throne of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth through his mother Catherine Jagellonica of Poland, Sigismund III of the House of Vasa is crowned King of Sweden, succeeding his father John III of Sweden.

Roman Emperor Septimius Severus defeats usurper Clodius Albinus in the Battle of Lugdunum, the bloodiest battle between Roman armies.