- China became the fifth country in the world to successfully detonate a nuclear bomb. (1964) China joined Great Britain, the Soviet Union, France and the United States as a nuclear power.
- US President George W. Bush authorized the Iraq War. (2002) President Bush signed the resolution established by the US Congress authorizing the war, which would begin on March 20, 2003.
- The "Long March" — the longest march in the history of warfare — began in China. (1934) In what became a successful effort to establish Mao Zedong as the communist leader in China, the march lasted one year and four days, covering more than 6,000 miles (about 9,656 kilometers).
- The last smallpox diagnosis was made. (1975) Two-year-old Rahima Banu of Bangladesh was the last-known victim of the disease. Smallpox is the only disease in human history to be declared eradicated.
- The "Million Man March" took place in Washington D.C. (1995) The march, led by Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam, was a gathering of black men in the US speaking out against poor social and economic conditions in the black community.
- Nazis established the Warsaw Ghetto. (1940) Nazis used the ghetto to house more than 400,000 Warsaw Jews, which represented about 30 percent of Warsaw's population. The ghetto area, however, represented only about two percent of the area of Warsaw. The ghettos were blocked from the outside world with barbed-wire-topped walls and guarded by armed soldiers. Parts of the wall remain standing today.
- Britain announced plans to ban handguns following the 1996 Dunblane massacre. (1996) The Dunblane massacre was a murder-suicide at a primary school in Scotland, during which 16 children and two adults were killed. The plans became law the following year.
- Planned Parenthood was founded. (1916) American activist Margaret Sanger opened the country's first birth-control clinic in Brooklyn, New York.
- United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Vietnamese revolutionary politician Le Duc Tho were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. (1973) The two were honored for successfully negotiating the Vietnam War cease-fire. Tho rejected the award.
- The first person summited all 14 "eight-thousanders." (1986) Italian mountaineer Reinhold Messner successfully climbed all 14 mountains of the world with peaks higher than 8,000 meters, or about 24,247 feet. Since Messner, at least 20 others have accomplished the same feat.
- The Walt Disney Company was founded. (1923) The company was founded by two brothers, Roy and Walt Disney. Today, it is the world's largest conglomeration of entertainment and media companies.
