Legendary TV persona, Johnny Carson, hosted 'The Tonight Show' for the last time. He was the show's host for 30 years.

The Windows 3.0 operating system was released by Microsoft.

The country of Ceylon adopts a new constitution, and changes its name to Sri Lanka.

A bomb exploded aboard a Continental Airlines airplane, causing it to crash and kill all 45 passengers.

An earthquake measuring 9.5 on the Richter scale, now known as the Great Chilean Earthquake, hit southern Chile. It is the most powerful earthquake ever recorded.

In accordance with the US's efforts to halt the spread of Communism, US President Harry S. Truman, signed an act into law that granted $400 million in military and economic aid to Turkey and Greece. The act would later be called the Truman Doctrine.

The first intercalated Summer Olympic Games were held in Athens, Greece. Although today the IOC does not recognize them as part of the official Olympic Games they were the games that kept the Olympics alive, as the 1904 Paris and the 1908 Rome games were a failure.

French author, Victor Hugo, died at the age of 83. He is widely recognized as one of the most influential writers of the 19th century, having written such classics as 'Les Miserables' and 'The Hunchback of Notre-Dame'.

British physician and writer, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is most known for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes.

German composer, Richard Wagner, was born in Leipzig, Germany.