British Prime Minister Winston Churchill receives the Nobel Prize in literature.

A volcano on White Island, New Zealand, kills at least 18 people after it erupts.

First confirmed case of COVID-19 in China

First concert of the New York Philharmonic, founded by Ureli Corelli Hill.

NASA reveals photographs taken by Mars Global Surveyor suggesting the presence of liquid water on Mars.

Flight 19, a group of TBF Avengers, disappears in the Bermuda Triangle.

Terry A. Anderson is released after seven years in captivity as a hostage in Beirut; he is the last and longest-held American hostage in Lebanon.

Bhopal disaster: A methyl isocyanate leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, kills more than 3,800 people outright and injures 150,000–600,000 others…

Fidel Castro becomes President of Cuba, replacing Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado.

The Our Lady of the Angels School fire in Chicago kills 92 children and three nuns.