Nancy Pelosi became the first female speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States .

Islamic guerrillas massacred 170 civilians in three remote villages of Algeria.

In the Sindh province of Pakistan a passenger train collided a freight train resulting in the death of 300 people.

Two Libyan MiG-23 were shot down by a pair of American Navy F-14's during an aerial confrontation.

American-born writer, T. S. Eliot, died at the age of 77. He was one of the most influential poets of the 20th century and in 1948 won the Nobel Prize for Literature. In 1927 he was given British citizenship and converted to Anglicanism.

The last issue of Collier's Weekly magazine was published. It was first published in 1888 and was printed for 69 years. It was the first investigative reporting magazine in the world.

Burma gained its independence from the United Kingdom.

Billboard magazine published its first pop music charts. The charts remain today as one of the most respectable sources for music ratings.

American ornithologist, James Bond, was born in Philadelphia. He was the inspiration for the name that writer, Ian Fleming, used for his fictional spy James Bond.

Samuel Colt sold his first revolver pistol to the United States government.

Sir Isaac Newton was born in in Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, Lincolnshire, England.