1876 – Texas A&M University opened as the first public institution of higher education in the U.S. state of Texas.
1918 – An ammunition plant in Sayreville, New Jersey, U.S., exploded, killing around 100 people and destroying more than 300 buildings.
1957 – Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 1 (replica pictured), the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth, was launched by an R-7 rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
1958 – The current Constitution of France was signed into law, establishing the French Fifth Republic.
2010 – The dam holding a waste reservoir in western Hungary collapsed, freeing one million m3 (1,300,000 yd3) of red mud, which flooded nearby communities and killed ten people.