U.S. President Richard Nixon embarks on his historic visit to China. The first visit of a U.S. President in China was an important step in normalizing relations between the two countries.

The peace symbol is designed by Gerald Holtom. The symbol was commissioned by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and combines the semaphore symbols for the letters N and D - an abbreviation of “Nuclear Disarmament”.

The world's first telephone book is issued in New Haven, Connecticut. The directory consisted of a single piece of cardboard and comprised 50 numbers.

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish “The Communist Manifesto”. “Das Kommunistische Manifest” outlined the sociopolitical worldview today called “Marxism” and was translated from German into over 100 languages.

The world's first railway journey takes place in Wales. The first full-scale steam locomotive, built by Richard Trevithick, traveled from the Pen-y-darren ironworks near Merthyr Tydfil to Abercynon.