Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and to orbit the Sun, is launched by the Soviet Union.
A 9.3 magnitude earthquake creates a tsunami that causes devastation in many areas around the rim of the Indian Ocean and killing over 230,000.
The United States successfully launches the first intercontinental ballistic missile at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Japanese troops begin several weeks of mass murder and rape of Chinese civilians following the capture of Nanking.
Prime Minister Jomo Kenyatta becomes the first president of the Republic of Kenya a year after it gains independence from the United Kingdom.
President Theodore Roosevelt announces that the United States would intervene in the Western Hemisphere should Latin American governments prove incapable or unstable.
U.S. President George H.W. Bush and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev set the stage for major troop and arms reductions in Europe at a summit in Malta.
