Sebastian Vettel wins the Formula One World Drivers' Champion. At 23 years old, the German competitive race driver became the youngest person to win the World Championship in Formula One.

First spacecraft to orbit a planet. NASA's Mariner 9 entered Mars' orbit after 167 days in space. Despite it being in Mars' orbit within 15 minutes, a dust storm on the planet made it impossible for Mariner 9 to take pictures of Mars until January.

Apollo 12 launched. The crew of the NASA's second manned mission to the Moon included Commander Charles Conrad, Jr. Richard F. Gordon, Jr. and Alan L. Bean. It landed on the Moon on November 19 and was the first spacecraft to take a color TV camera to the Moon.

Nelie Bly sets out to go around the world in 80 days. The American journalist, whose real name was Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman, followed the footsteps of fictional character Phileas Fogg from Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days. She started her adventure in Hoboken and came back 72 days later.

Moby Dick Makes its Debut in the United States. The epic novel by Herman Melville about Captain Ahab's quest to find and kill Moby Dick, a white whale had released in the UK in October under the name The Whale. Considered to be one of the best fictional works written in recent history, the book did not sell many copies after its launch or during Melville's lifetime.