A group of armed terrorists took approximately 1200 children and adults hostage in a school in the town of Beslan in North Ossetia, Russia. After a 3 day stand off fighting broke out between the terrorists and Russian armed forces, resulting in the death of 344 hostages.

Uzbekistan declared its independence from the Soviet Union.

The wreck of the RMS Titanic was discovered by a joint American-French expedition.

Korean Air Flight 007 was shot down by a Soviet Union fighter plane when Flight 007 entered Soviet airspace. All 269 people on board died.

Nazi official, Albert Speer, died at the age of 76. He had served the Nazi regime as minister for armaments. He was tried and sentenced to 20 years in prison, which he served in the now infamous Spandau prison.

An SR-71 Blackbird military plane flied from New York to London in a record breaking 1hour and 54minutes. The supersonic commercial 'Concorde' airplane took approximately 3hours and 20 minutes to traverse the same distance.

American Bobby Fischer beat Russian Boris Spassky to become the world chess champion. Bobby Fischer has been a controversial figure throughout his life who lost his title without ever having defended it and who renounced his American citizenship and is now living in Iceland.

A revolution took place in Libya and as a results Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi assumed power.

Dutch football player, Ruud Gullit, was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands. He was one of the great football stars on the 80's and 90's. He was acquired by AC Milan in 1987 for the then record fee of 6 million UK pounds.

The United States, Australia and New Zealand signed a mutual defence treaty. While the 3 countries had fought alongside each other on several occasions, the treaty was invoked for the first time ever after the September 11th terrorist attacks on the United States. The treaty was invoked by Australia.

A massive earthquake hit Japan, devastating the cities of Tokyo and Yokohama. The earthquake which is known as 'The Great Kanto earthquake, is estimated to have had a magnitude of between 7.9 and 8.5 in the Richter scale. The magnitude along with the fact that it lasted for a fairly long time (reports place its duration between 4 and 10 minutes) resulted in tremendous destruction and the death of approximately 140,000 people.

American boxer, Rocky Marciano, was born in Brockton, Massachusetts. He is considered one of the greatest heavyweights of all time and the only boxing champion of any weight class to retire undefeated and without any draws.

The city of St. Petersburg, Russia had its name changed to Petrograd. The name change was done under the direction of Tsar Nikolas the 2nd in the shadow of the First World War, because the name was seen as sounding too German. It was changed again in 1924 to Leningrad and kept that name up until 1991, when it was again changed to St. Petersburg. The city was originally founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and had served as the capital of the Russian empire up until 1917.

The Brazilian 'Sport Club Corinthians Paulista', was founded. It is one of the most popular Sports clubs in Brazil. It is most commonly referred to only as Corinthians, a name chosen as homage to the British club 'Corinthians'.

The provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan joined the Canadian confederation.

The subway of Boston, Massachusetts opened, it was the first underground metro in North America.

King Louis XIV of France died at the age of 77. He was known as Louis the Great who had become king of France at the age of 4 although he did not execute authority until his 24th birthday.

The day in which according to Byzantine tradition, the world was created.