1988: Carrollton bus collision: A drunk driver traveling the wrong way on Interstate 71 near Carrollton, Kentucky, United States hits a converted school bus carrying a church youth group. Twenty-seven die in the crash and ensuing fire.
1973: Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched.
1955: Cold War: Eight Communist bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, sign a mutual defense treaty called the Warsaw Pact.
1951: Trains run on the Talyllyn Railway in Wales for the first time since preservation, making it the first railway in the world to be operated by volunteers.
1948: Israel is declared to be an independent state and a provisional government is established. Immediately after the declaration, Israel is attacked by the neighboring Arab states, triggering the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
1943: World War II: A Japanese submarine sinks AHS Centaur off the coast of Queensland.
1940: World War II: The Battle of the Netherlands ends with the Netherlands surrendering to Germany.
1879: The first group of 463 Indian indentured laborers arrives in Fiji aboard the Leonidas.
1878: The last witchcraft trial held in the United States begins in Salem, Massachusetts, after Lucretia Brown, an adherent of Christian Science, accused Daniel Spofford of attempting to harm her through his mental powers.
1870: The first game of rugby in New Zealand is played in Nelson between Nelson College and the Nelson Rugby Football Club.