Last Total Solar Eclipse of the Millennium. The eclipse was visible from Europe, most of Asia and Africa and in parts of North America. Because of its path through heavily populated parts of the world, the solar eclipse is thought to be one of the most viewed eclipses in recorded history.

Mall of America Opens its Doors to Shoppers. Located in in Bloomington, Minnesota, the mall is the largest shopping Mall in the United States. Spanning 4,870,000 sq ft, it has an indoor theme park and attracts about 40 million visitors each year.

The Soviet Space Agency Launches Vostok 3. The spacecraft was piloted by Andriyan Nikolayev, the first cosmonaut to have orbited the Earth 64 times in 4 days.

Chad gains its independence from the French. The Central African country came under French rule in 1900 after the Battle of Kousséri. Francois Tombalbay became independent Chad's first president.

The first Olympic Games after the 1938 Berlin Olympics open in London. The next two games after Berlin, scheduled to be held in Tokyo and Helsinki were cancelled due to the Second World War. The first Olympics to be broadcast on television, the London Olympics was popularly known at the time as the Austerity Games. This was because of the cutbacks the host nation had to do due to the post-war economy.