Barings Bank, collapses after a securities broker, Nick Leeson, loses $1.4 billion by speculating on the Singapore International Monetary Exchange.

The ‘On the Personality Cult and its Consequences’ Nikita Khrushchev’ denounces the cult of personality surrounding Joseph Stalin.

Estonia declares independence.

The first mass inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine began in Pittsburgh, USA.

The “Miracle on Ice” in which the USA hockey team defeats the Soviet Union hockey team 4-3.

Karl Marx publishes The Communist Manifesto.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York opens.

250 Japanese planes attack the Australian city of Darwin killing 243 people.

Snow falls in the Sahara Desert for the only time in recorded history.

A mudslide occurs in Southern Leyte, Philippines with a death toll of 1,126.