Nelson Mandela becomes South Africa's first black president. Mandela's inauguration came after more than 300 years of white rule. Before becoming president, he was a pivotal figure in the fight against the racist apartheid regime and was incarcerated for 27 years.

Bill Haley releases “Rock Around the Clock”. It was the first rock song to top the Billboard charts and has become a classic of the early rock era.

Adolf Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess, parachutes into Scotland to broker a peace agreement. Hess was captured and interrogated. He was the last in a long line of prominent figures to be incarcerated in the Tower of London. Hitler characterized his peace mission four years before the end of World War II as treason.

Nazis ceremonially burn about 25,000 allegedly “un-German” books. The book burnings were part of the right-wing German Student Union's Action against the Un-German Spirit. Among the burnt books were works by Albert Einstein, Bertolt Brecht, Sigmund Freud, and Franz Kafka.

In the United States, the first coast to coast railroad is completed. The Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroad systems were joined at Promontory Summit in Utah, using a “Golden Spike”. This last spike is now housed in the Cantor Arts Museum at Stanford University.