The Rwandan genocide begins
The assassination of Rwandan President, Juvénal Habyarimana, and Burundian President, Cyprien Ntaryamira, triggered a mass slaughter of ethnic Tutsis with up to 1 million victims.
The first commercial communications satellite is launched
Intelsat I, also known as Early Bird, facilitated the first live TV broadcast of a spacecraft splashdown when Gemini 6 landed in the Atlantic Ocean.
Robert Peary allegedly becomes the first person to reach the North Pole
Peary’s claim has never been verified and is widely contested. The first undisputed journey to the North Pole was the 1948 Soviet Sever-2 expedition.
The first modern Olympic Games are opened in Athens
241 athletes from 14 countries took part in the First Olympiad. The event took place over 1500 years after the last ancient Olympic Games, which originated in Olympia in south-western Greece.
- 1963 Rafael Correa
Ecuadorian politician, 54th President of Ecuador - 1929 André Previn
German/American pianist, composer, conductor - 1928 James Watson
American biologist, geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate - 1926 Sergio Franchi
Italian/American singer, actor - 1926 Ian Paisley
Irish minister, politician, 2nd First
- 1992 Isaac Asimov
American chemist, author - 1971 Igor Stravinsky
Russian composer - 1528 Albrecht Dürer
German painter, engraver, mathematician - 1520 Raphael
Italian painter, architect - 1199 Richard I of England
