1977: The Sri Lanka Riots:, targeting the minority Sri Lankan Tamils, begin, less than a month after the United National Party came to power. Over 300 Tamils are killed.
1977: The first free flight of the Space Shuttle Enterprise.
1960: Echo 1A, NASA's first successful communications satellite, is launched.
1953: The 7.2 Ms Ionian earthquake shakes the southern Ionian Islands with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). Between 445 and 800 people were killed.
1953: The first testing of a real thermonuclear weapon (not test devices): The Soviet atomic bomb project continues with the detonation of "RDS-6s" (Joe 4), the first Soviet thermonuclear bomb.
1952: The Night of the Murdered Poets: Thirteen prominent Jewish intellectuals are murdered in Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union.
1898: The Hawaiian flag is lowered from ʻIolani Palace in an elaborate annexation ceremony and replaced with the flag of the United States to signify the transfer of sovereignty from the Republic of Hawaii to the United States.
1323: Signature of the Treaty of Nöteborg between Sweden and Novgorod Republic, that regulates the border between the two countries for the first time.