The Dutch expedition captained by Admiral Van Warwyck first sighted Mauritius.
Source
The New York Stock Exchange reopened for trading after the September 11 attacks.
Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek declared his discovery of microorganisms to the Royal Society in London.
The fourth great fire of San Francisco happened, destroying a considerable portion of the city.
Linus Torvalds released the first version of the Linux operating system kernel for free on the Internet.
Finnish long-distance runner Taisto Mäki broke the 10,000-meter world record in 29:52:06.