2013: Thirty-six people are killed and 39 others are injured in a stampede in Allahabad, India, during the Kumbh Mela festival.
2009: The communications satellites Iridium 33 and Kosmos 2251 collide in orbit, destroying both.
2003: France and Belgium break the NATO procedure of silent approval concerning the timing of protective measures for Turkey in case of a possible war with Iraq.
1996: IBM supercomputer Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov in chess for the first time.
1984: Kenyan soldiers commit the worst ever human rights violation in the country by slaughtering an estimated 5000 ethnic Somali Kenyans in Wagalla in N.E.-Kenya.
1972: Ras Al Khaimah joins the United Arab Emirates, now making up seven emirates.
1967: The 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified.
1964: Melbourne-Voyager collision: The aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne collides with and sinks the destroyer HMAS Voyager off the south coast of New South Wales, Australia, killing 82.
1962: Roy Lichtenstein's first solo exhibition opened, and it included Look Mickey, which featured his first employment of Ben-Day dots, speech balloons and comic imagery sourcing, all of which he is now known for.
1962: Captured American U2 spy-plane pilot Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.
1954: United States President Dwight Eisenhower warns against United States intervention in Vietnam.
1947: Crowds gathered at shop windows in Paris to see Christian Dior's New Look fashion - longer skirts, nipped-in waists and padded shoulders.
1567: Lord Darnley, second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, is found strangled following an explosion at the Kirk o' Field house in Edinburgh, Scotland, a suspected assassination.
1355: The St Scholastica Day riot breaks out in Oxford, England, leaving 63 scholars and perhaps 30 locals dead in two days.