Hillary Rodham Clinton was elected to the United States Senate. She was the first 'First Lady of the United States' to be elected to public office.

A Nigerian passenger jet crashed into a lagoon approximately 40 miles south-east of Lagos, resulting in the death of 143 people.

American actor, Steve McQueen, died at the age of 50. He died from a heart attack after he had undergone surgery which was intended to treat the rare form of lung cancer he was suffering from.

The first episode of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century was aired on the radio. The radio show lasted for a full 15 years before it was cancelled. The show also spawned a multitude of movies as well as television and animated series.

In New York City's Museum of Modern Art opened to the public for the first time.

During the course of the First World War, British forces captured Gaza from the Ottoman Empire.

Aviation pioneers, the Wright Brothers, undertake the first ever air freight transfer from Dayton, Ohio, to Columbus, Ohio. The transfer was commisioned by department store owner Max Moorehouse.

Russian revolutionary, Leon Trotsky, was born in Yanovka, Ukraine. He was a Bolshevik revolutionary and one of the most influential political figures in the early years of the Soviet Union. However as an antagonist of Joseph Stalin he was forced to flee the Soviet Union and was eventually assassinated while in Mexico by a Soviet agent.