Sweden introduced a groundbreaking Freedom of Press Act, becoming the first nation to introduce freedom of speech.
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NASA's Endeavour Space Shuttle was launched through Mission STS-61.
Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned the Emperor of France in Paris.
The world's first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction happened in Chicago Pile-1 at the University of Chicago. It was overseen by Enrico Fermi.
Cobb, a film about the baseball player Ty Cobb and starring Tommy Lee Jones premiered.
The 'I Robot' collection of sci-fi short stories by Isaac Asimov was published by Genome Press in the US.