The Black Saturday bushfires in Australia kill 173 people. The fires were the worst natural disaster in Australian history.

Ellen MacArthur breaks the speed record for sailing solo around the world. The journey took her 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes, and 33 seconds.

The European Union is established as the Maastricht Treaty is signed. The treaty also defined a single European currency: the Euro.

Haiti's president, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, flees the country, ending 28 years of family rule. On the same day 5 years later, the first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was sworn in.

NASA astronauts take the first untethered spacewalk. The photographs of Bruce McCandless and Robert L. Stewart hovering freely in space became some of the most iconic images of the 1980s.