India gets its first female president. Pratibha Patil, a politician stayed in office as the head of state of the South Asian country for 5 years.

Svetlana Savitskaya Becomes the First Woman to Walk in Space. The Soviet cosmonaut was part of the Soyuz T-12 mission, which docked at the Salyut 7 Space station. As part of the mission, she spent 3.5 hours in space testing tools. Savitskaya was also the second woman to go into space and the first to go to space twice.

World's first test tube baby is born. Louise Joy Brown was the first person to be conceived using in-vitro fertilization or IVF technology, pioneered by doctors Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards.

The famous Face on Mars photo is taken. Viking 1, the first space probe to successfully land on Mars took the famous photo of the Cydonia region on the Red Planet.

Tunisia gains its independence from France. The northernmost African country, became a French protectorate in 1881, under the Treaty of Bardo. The path to independence in the country was marred by civil unrest and conflict and was led by Habib Bourguiba, who became the first president of the independent country.