Michael Phelps becomes the first person to win eight gold medals in one Olympic Games.

The first forced evacuation of settlers, as part of the Israel unilateral disengagement plan, starts.

The National Assembly of Serbia unanimously adopts new state symbols for Serbia: Boze Pravde becomes the new anthem and the coat of arms is adopted for the whole country.

A 7.4-magnitude earthquake strikes İzmit, Turkey, killing more than 17,000 and injuring 44,000.

Monica Lewinsky scandal: US President Bill Clinton admits in taped testimony that he had an "improper physical relationship" with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. On the same day he admits before the nation that he "misled people" about the relationship.

Pakistani President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and U.S. Ambassador Arnold Raphel are killed in a plane crash.

The first Compact Discs (CDs) are released to the public in Germany.

Azaria Chamberlain disappears, probably taken by a dingo, leading to what was then the most publicised trial in Australian history.

Two Soviet Aeroflot jetliners collide in mid-air over Ukraine, killing 156

''Double Eagle II'' becomes first balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean when it lands in Miserey near Paris, 137 hours after leaving Presque Isle, Maine.

Venera Program: Venera 7 launched. It will later become the first spacecraft to successfully transmit data from the surface of another planet (Venus).

Category 5 Hurricane Camille hits the Mississippi coast, killing 248 people and causing $1.5 billion in damage.

East German border guards kill 18-year-old Peter Fechter as he attempts to cross the Berlin Wall into West Berlin becoming one of the first victims of the wall.

Decolonization: Gabon gains independence from France.

''Kind of Blue'' by Miles Davis, the much acclaimed and highly influential best selling jazz recording of all time, is released.

Quake Lake: Quake Lake is formed by the magnitude 7.5 1959 Yellowstone earthquake near Hebgen Lake in Montana.

Addiction: First meeting of Narcotics Anonymous in Southern California.

The Radcliffe Line, the border between Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan is revealed.

Indonesian Declaration of Independence.

World War II: First Québec Conference of Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and William Lyon Mackenzie King begins.

World War II: The U.S. Seventh Army under General George S. Patton arrives in Messina, Italy, followed several hours later by the British 8th Army under Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery, thus completing the Allied conquest of Sicily.

The U.S. Eighth Air Force suffers the loss of 60 bombers on the Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission.

U.S. Marines raid the Japanese-held Pacific island of Makin (Butaritari).

Bolshevik revolutionary leader Moisei Uritsky is assassinated.

Jewish American Leo Frank is lynched for the alleged murder of a 13-year-old girl in Marietta, Georgia.

World War I: Battle of Stalluponen

''Fantasmagorie'', the first animated cartoon, realized by Émile Cohl, is shown in Paris.

Pike Place Market, the longest continuously-running public farmers market in the US, opened in Seattle.

The first public performance of the Dominican Republic's national anthem, ''Himno Nacional''.

American Civil War: Battle of Gainesville

American Civil War: In Charleston, South Carolina, Union batteries and ships bombard Confederate-held Fort Sumter.

American Civil War: Major General J.E.B. Stuart is assigned command of all the cavalry of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.

Indian Wars: The Dakota War of 1862 begins in Minnesota as Lakota warriors attack white settlements along the Minnesota River.

Robert Fulton's first American steamboat leaves New York City for Albany, New York on the Hudson River, inaugurating the first commercial steamboat service in the world.

A Byzantine army is destroyed in the pass of Trajan's Gate by the Bulgarians under the Comitopuli Samuel and Aron. The Byzantine emperor Basil II narrowly escaped.