January 3

The United States conducts airstrikes across northern Venezuela, including the capital Caracas and captures Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and first lady Cilia Flores.

At least 91 people are killed in bombings in Kerman, Iran, during a ceremony commemorating the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani four years earlier.

Singapore's Jurong Bird Park permanently closes.

Iranian General Qasem Soleimani is killed by an American airstrike near Baghdad International Airport, igniting global concerns of a potential armed conflict.

Chang'e 4 makes the first soft landing on the far side of the Moon, deploying the Yutu-2 lunar rover.

For the first time in history, all five major storm surge gates in the Netherlands are closed simultaneously in the wake of a storm.

In response to the execution of Nimr al-Nimr, Iran ends its diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia.

Boko Haram militants destroy the entire town of Baga in north-east Nigeria, starting the Baga massacre and killing as many as 2,000 people.

The first block of the blockchain of the decentralized payment system Bitcoin, called the Genesis block, is established by the creator of the system, Satoshi Nakamoto.

Flash Airlines Flight 604 crashes into the Red Sea, resulting in 148 deaths, making it one of the deadliest aviation accidents in Egyptian history.

Israeli–Palestinian conflict: Israeli forces seize the Palestinian freighter Karine A in the Red Sea, finding 50 tons of weapons.

The Mars Polar Lander is launched by NASA.

Baikal Airlines Flight 130 crashes near Mamoney, Irkutsk, Russia, resulting in 125 deaths.

In Moscow, Russia, George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).

CommutAir Flight 4821 crashes on approach to Adirondack Regional Airport, in Saranac Lake, New York, killing two people.

United States invasion of Panama: Manuel Noriega, former leader of Panama, surrenders to American forces.

Varig Flight 797 crashes near Akouré in the Ivory Coast, resulting in 50 deaths.

Apple Computer is incorporated.

The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, comes into force.

Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro.

Cold War: After a series of economic retaliations against one another, the United States severs diplomatic relations with Cuba.

The SL-1 nuclear reactor, near Idaho Falls, Idaho, is destroyed by a steam explosion in the only reactor incident in the United States to cause immediate fatalities.

A protest by agricultural workers in Baixa de Cassanje, Portuguese Angola, turns into a revolt, opening the Angolan War of Independence, the first of the Portuguese Colonial Wars.

Aero Flight 311 crashes into the forest in Kvevlax, Finland, killing 25 people.

Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state.

The West Indies Federation is formed.

The Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch.

A fire damages the top part of the Eiffel Tower.

Frances P. Bolton and her son, Oliver from Ohio, become the first mother and son to serve simultaneously in the U.S. Congress.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the central bank of the Philippines, is established.

Proceedings of the U.S. Congress are televised for the first time.

Popular Canadian American jockey George Woolf suffers a concussion during a freak racing accident; he dies from the injury the following day. The annual George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award is created to honor him.

World War II: US flying ace Major Greg "Pappy" Boyington is shot down in his Vought F4U Corsair by Captain Masajiro Kawato flying a Mitsubishi A6M Zero.

Minnie D. Craig becomes the first woman elected as Speaker of the North Dakota House of Representatives, the first woman to hold a Speaker position anywhere in the United States.

Over 640 are killed after a magnitude 6.4 earthquake strikes the Mexican states Puebla and Veracruz.

An Atlantic coast storm sets the lowest confirmed barometric pressure reading (955.0 mb (28.20 inHg)) for a non-tropical system in the continental United States.

First Balkan War: Greece completes its capture of the eastern Aegean island of Chios, as the last Ottoman forces on the island surrender.

A magnitude 7.7 earthquake destroys the city of Almaty in Russian Turkestan.

A gun battle in the East End of London leaves two dead. It sparked a political row over the involvement of then-Home Secretary Winston Churchill.

Sino-French War: Beginning of the Battle of Núi Bop.

In the Battle of Bapaume, an engagement in the Franco-Prussian War, General Louis Faidherbe's forces bring about a Prussian retreat.

Construction work begins on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, United States.

Meiji Restoration in Japan: The Tokugawa shogunate is abolished; agents of Satsuma and Chōshū seize power.

American Civil War: Delaware votes not to secede from the United States.

Joseph Jenkins Roberts is sworn in as the first president of Liberia.

Captain James Onslow, in the Clio, reasserts British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.

Austria, the United Kingdom, and France form a secret defensive alliance against Prussia and Russia.

American Revolutionary War: American forces under General George Washington defeat British forces at the Battle of Princeton, helping boost patriot morale.

Benning Wentworth issues the first of the New Hampshire Grants, leading to the establishment of Vermont.

The first issue of Berlingske, Denmark's oldest continually operating newspaper, is published.

By the Coonan Cross Oath, the Eastern Church in India cuts itself off from colonial Portuguese tutelage.

Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther in the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem.

Emperor Decius orders everyone in the Roman Empire (except Jews) to make sacrifices to the Roman gods.

The Roman legions on the Rhine refuse to declare their allegiance to Galba, instead proclaiming their legate, Aulus Vitellius, as emperor.