193 people die when a ferry capsizes in the North Sea. The Herald of Free Enterprise sank just minutes after leaving the Belgian port of Zeebrugge.

Josef Stalin's daughter defects to the West. The Soviet dictator's daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, caused an international uproar when she approached the United States embassy in New Delhi and later became a naturalized U.S. citizen.

Ghana becomes the first African country to gain independence from colonial rule. Ghana emerged as a sovereign state from the former British colonies Gold Coast and Togoland. Kwame Nkrumah was the country's first leader.

The painkiller Asprin is registered as a trademark. Acetylsalicylic acid was first isolated in 1897 by German chemist Felix Hoffmann. Today, the medication is sold by Bayer and is on the World Health Organization's list of essential medicines.

The first periodic table of chemical elements is presented. Dmitri Mendeleev presented the system to the Russian Chemical Society on that day.