World’s first successful partial face transplant. Drs Bernard Devauchelle, Benoit Lengelé, and Jean-Michel Dubernard used donor tissue to reconstruct the face of Isabelle Dinoire in Amiens, France. Isabelle Dinoire’s face had been mauled by a dog.

Hubble detects the first planetary atmosphere outside the Solar System. The space telescope detected sodium on HD 209458 b, an exoplanet also known as Osiris. Belonging to a class of planets called hot Jupiter, because they are similar in size to Jupiter. Unlike Jupiter, however, these planets orbit very close to their stars and consequently have very high temperatures on their surfaces.

World’s first living liver transplant. 21-month old Alyssa Smith became the first person to receive a liver transplant from a living donor, her mother Teresa Smith at the University of Chicago Medical Center. The transplant occurred under the supervision of surgeons Christoph Broelsch, Richard Thistlethwaite, Thomas Heffron, and Jean Emond.

Harvey Milk and George Moscone are assassinated. Milk was the first openly-gay person to be elected in local government in California. He and George Moscone, San Francisco's mayor at the time, were killed by a former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

Alfred Nobel signes his last will. Alfred Nobel signed his last will which called for his estate and fortune that he made as the inventor of dynamite to be used for creating awards for those who contributed to the benefit of mankind. The will created 5 awards - in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace, and was signed in the Swedish–Norwegian Club in Paris.