Footage of Los Angeles police officers severely beating Rodney King causes a global outcry. The acquittal of the police officers involved sparked the Los Angeles riots in 1992.

The U.K. miners' strike ends. The year-long dispute was the country's longest-running industrial dispute and a defining issue of Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government.

All 345 people on board a Turkish Airlines jet die as it plunges to the ground near Paris, France. The crash of the DC-10 aircraft has the 4th highest death toll of any aviation accident in history.

The world's fastest steam locomotive is built. The Mallard could reach a speed of over 100 miles per hour (160 km/h).

The last remnant of the Ottoman empire in Turkey is abolished. The end of the Islamic caliphate marked the demise of the 600-year old empire and gave way to the formation of a reformed Turkey under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.