Moldova declared its independence from the Soviet Union.
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Two baseball teams played a night match at White Sox Party using three 100-foot towers lit with 12 electric lamps.
In Java, Indonesia, the Krakatoa volcano erupted and destroyed 70% of the island and its surroundings.
For the first time in history, the BBC (British Broadcasting Company) transmitted a two-hour-long live broadcast from Calais, France, to television screens in the UK.
American driller Edwin Laurentine Drake successfully drilled the first oil well in Pennsylvania, US.
Jacques Charles and the Robert brothers released the first-ever unmanned hydrogen balloon.
