Australians elect the centre-left Australian Labor Party at a federal election; the outgoing prime minister, John Howard, becomes the first since 1929 to lose his own seat.

In Liverpool, 11-year-olds Robert Thompson and Jon Venables are convicted of the murder of 2-year-old James Bulger.

A China Southern Airlines domestic flight in the People's Republic of China, crashes, killing all 141 people on-board.

Donald Johanson and Tom Gray discover the 40% complete ''Australopithecus afarensis'' skeleton, nicknamed "Lucy" (after The Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"), in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia's Afar Depression.

A national speed limit is imposed on the Autobahn in Germany due to the 1973 oil crisis. The speed limit lasted only four months.

During a severe thunderstorm over Washington state, a hijacker calling himself Dan Cooper (AKA D. B. Cooper) parachutes from a Northwest Orient Airlines plane with $200,000 in ransom money. He has never been found.

Apollo program: The Apollo 12 command module splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean, ending the second manned mission to the Moon.

A Bulgarian plane with 82 people on board crashes near Bratislava, Czechoslovakia.

New York City experiences the smoggiest day in the city's history.

Joseph Désiré Mobutu seizes power in the Congo and becomes President; he rules the country (which he renames Zaire in 1971) for over 30 years, until being overthrown by rebels in 1997.

Lee Harvey Oswald is murdered by Jack Ruby in the basement of Dallas police department headquarters. The shooting is broadcast live on television.

Vietnam War: Newly sworn-in US President Lyndon B. Johnson confirms that the United States intends to continue supporting South Vietnam both militarily and economically.

The West Berlin branch of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany forms a separate party, the Socialist Unity Party of West Berlin.

World War II: Bombing of Tokyo in World War II|Bombing of Tokyo

World War II: The {{USS|Liscome Bay}} is torpedoed near Tarawa and sinks with nearly 650 men killed.

World War II: The United States grants Lend-Lease to the Free French.

World War II: Slovakia becomes a signatory to the Tripartite Pact, officially joining the Axis Powers.

The Senegalese Socialist Party holds its second congress.

In Washington, D.C., the FBI Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory (better known as the FBI Crime Lab) officially opens.

Author and Irish Republican Army member Robert Erskine Childers is executed by an Irish Free State firing squad for illegally carrying a revolver.

The Canton Bulldogs-Massillon Tigers Betting Scandal, the first major scandal in professional American football.

American Civil War: Third Battle of Chattanooga|Battle of Lookout Mountain

Charles Darwin publishes ''On the Origin of Species''.

Danish troops defeat a Schleswig-Holstein force in the town of Lottorf, Schleswig-Holstein.

Abel Tasman becomes the first European to discover the island Van Diemen's Land (later renamed Tasmania).

Jeremiah Horrocks observes the transit of Venus, an event he had predicted.

Battle of Solway Moss: The English army defeats the Scots.

Joan of Arc unsuccessfully besieges La Charité.

Theodosius I makes his ''adventus'', or formal entry, into Constantinople.