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Xi Jinping replaced Hu Jintao as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, succeeding as the paramount leader of China.
Edoardo Agnelli, son of the industrialist patriarch Gianni Agnelli, was found dead under a bridge on the outskirts of Turin, Italy.
The Soviet spacecraft Buran, a reusable vehicle built in response to NASA's Space Shuttle program, was launched, uncrewed, on its only flight.
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The world population reached eight billion.
Lewis Hamilton wins the Turkish Grand Prix and secures his seventh drivers' title, equalling the all-time record held by Michael Schumacher.
A flood a few miles outside of Athens results in the death of 25 people.
Hong Kong's High Court bans elected politicians Yau Wai-ching and Baggio Leung from the city's Parliament.
Xi Jinping becomes General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and a new seven-member Politburo Standing Committee is inaugurated.
A fire in a high-rise apartment building in Shanghai, China kills 58 people.
Cyclone Sidr hits Bangladesh, killing an estimated 5,000 people and destroying parts of the world's largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans.
Al Jazeera English launches worldwide.
The first day of the 2003 Istanbul bombings, in which two car bombs, targeting two synagogues, explode, kill 25 people and wound 300 more.
Hu Jintao becomes General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and a new nine-member Politburo Standing Committee is inaugurated.
Microsoft launches the Xbox game console in North America.
A chartered Antonov An-24 crashes after takeoff from Luanda, Angola, killing more than 40 people.
Jharkhand officially becomes the 28th state of India, formed from eighteen districts of southern Bihar.
A magnitude 7.1 earthquake hits the central Philippine island of Mindoro, killing 78 people, injuring 430 and triggering a tsunami up to 8.5 m (28 ft) high.
The Communist People's Republic of Bulgaria is disestablished and a new republican government is instituted.
Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched on STS-38, a classified mission for the Department of Defense.
In the Soviet Union, the uncrewed Shuttle Buran makes its only space flight.
Israeli–Palestinian conflict: An independent State of Palestine is proclaimed by the Palestinian National Council.
The first Fairtrade label, Max Havelaar, is launched in the Netherlands.
In Brașov, Romania, workers rebel against the communist regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu.
Continental Airlines Flight 1713 crashes during takeoff from Stapleton International Airport in Denver, Colorado, killing 25.
A research assistant is injured when a package from the Unabomber addressed to a University of Michigan professor explodes.
The Anglo-Irish Agreement is signed at Hillsborough Castle by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Irish Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald.
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus declares independence; it is only recognized by Turkey.
A package from Unabomber Ted Kaczynski begins smoking in the cargo hold of a flight from Chicago to Washington, D.C., forcing the plane to make an emergency landing.
A chartered Douglas DC-8 crashes near Colombo, Sri Lanka, killing 183.
René Lévesque and the Parti Québécois take power to become the first Quebec government of the 20th century clearly in favor of independence.
Intel releases the world's first commercial single-chip microprocessor, the 4004.
Cold War: The Soviet submarine K-19 collides with the American submarine USS Gato in the Barents Sea.
Vietnam War: In Washington, D.C., 250,000–500,000 protesters staged a peaceful demonstration against the war, including a symbolic "March Against Death".
The Cleveland Transit System becomes the first transit system in the western hemisphere to provide direct rapid transit service from a city's downtown to its major airport.
The only fatality of the North American X-15 program occurs during the 191st flight when Air Force test pilot Michael J. Adams loses control of his aircraft which is destroyed mid-air over the Mojave Desert.
Project Gemini: Gemini 12 completes the program's final mission, when it splashes down safely in the Atlantic Ocean.
Craig Breedlove sets a land speed record of 600.601 mph (966.574 km/h) in his car, the Spirit of America, at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.
Four members of the Clutter family are murdered near Holcomb, Kansas, by Perry Smith and Richard Hickock, a crime later detailed by Truman Capote in his 1966 non-fiction novel In Cold Blood.
Short Solent 3 crashes near Chessell.
The first part of the Saint Petersburg Metro is opened.
Nikos Beloyannis, along with 11 comrades, is sentenced to death for attempting to reestablish the Communist Party of Greece.
The Holocaust: German SS leader Heinrich Himmler orders that Gypsies are to be put "on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps".
World War II: The Battle of Guadalcanal ends in a decisive Allied victory.
Nazi Germany bans Jewish children from public schools in the aftermath of Kristallnacht.
Thailand holds its first election.
The RNLI lifeboat Mary Stanford capsizes in Rye Harbour with the loss of the entire 17-man crew.
At least 300 are massacred during a general strike in Guayaquil, Ecuador.
The first assembly of the League of Nations is held in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Free City of Danzig is established.
Eduskunta declares itself the supreme state power of Finland, prompting its declaration of independence and secession from Russia.
Second Boer War: Battle of Chieveley, a British armored train is ambushed and partially derailed. British lose the battle, with 80 soldiers captured, along with war correspondent Winston Churchill.
Brazil is declared a republic by Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca as Emperor Pedro II is deposed in a military coup.
The Berlin Conference of 1884–1885 met on 15 November 1884, and after an adjournment concluded on 26 February 1885, with the signature of a General Act, regulating the European colonisation and trade in Africa during the New Imperialism period.
American Civil War: Union General William Tecumseh Sherman begins his March to the Sea through Georgia towards the city of Savannah.
Boilers of the steamboat Louisiana explode as she pulls back from the dock in New Orleans, killing more than 150 people.
A slave revolt in the Cherokee Nation commences.
Pike Expedition: Lieutenant Zebulon Pike spots a mountain peak while near the Colorado foothills of the Rocky Mountains. It is later named Pikes Peak in his honor.
American Revolutionary War: After 16 months of debate the Continental Congress approves the Articles of Confederation.
The secondly-built Castellania in Valletta is officially inaugurated with the blessing of the interior Chapel of Sorrows.
Rákóczi's War of Independence: The Habsburg Empire and Denmark win a military victory over the Kurucs from Hungary in the Battle of Zsibó.
Francisco Pizarro arrives in Cuzco, the capital of the Inca Empire.
Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire: Commanded by Francisco Pizarro, Spanish conquistadors under Hernando de Soto meet Incan Emperor Atahualpa for the first time outside Cajamarca, arranging for a meeting in the city plaza the following day.
Growth of the Old Swiss Confederacy: The Schweizer Eidgenossenschaft ambushes the army of Leopold I in the Battle of Morgarten.
Battle of the Winwaed: Penda of Mercia is defeated by Oswiu of Northumbria.