The brand-new Sukhoi Superjet 100 plane crashes
The regional jet was the first airliner produced in Russia since the end of the USSR in 1991. The doomed flight was a demonstration tour carrying potential customers. All 45 people on board perished in the crash, which was caused by pilot error.

Pete Peterson becomes the first U.S. ambassador to visit Vietnam after the end of the war
Peterson, a Vietnam veteran, devoted himself to promoting reconciliation between the two countries. About 2.5 million Vietnamese, most of them civilians, were killed during the war.

Iranian Jewish businessman Habib Elghanian is executed
An Islamic revolutionary tribunal had convicted him of “contacts with Israel and Zionism” and “friendship with the enemies of God”. His execution triggered a Jewish mass exodus from Iran.

The first birth control pill is approved
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that it would add birth control as a new indication for the drug “Enovid”.