The Beatles perform on the Ed Sullivan Show
It is estimated that 73 million Americans were watching that night as the Beatles made their live U.S. television debut.
United Kingdom
The Malaysia Agreement creates the modern nation of Malaysia
Under the agreement, the United Kingdom, Federation of Malaya, North Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore combined North Borneo, Sarawak, and Singapore with the existing states of the Federation of Malaya in order to create the modern nation of Malaysia.
Ceylon gains independence from Great Britain
Following the Second World War, public pressure for independence increased in the British-ruled Colony of Ceylon, now known as Sri Lanka. Independence was formally granted under the Ceylon Independence Act 1947 and full independence was finally achieved independence on 4 February 1948, with an amended constitution taking effect on the same date.
India and Pakistan win independence
The long-awaited agreement ended 200 years of British rule and was hailed by Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi as “the noblest act of the British nation.”
Malawi gains independence from Britain
In 1964 the British protectorate over Nyasaland was ended and Nyasaland became an independent country under Queen Elizabeth II with the new name Malawi.
Howard Florey conducts the first-ever clinical trials of penicillin
Florey’s discoveries, along with the discoveries of Alexander Fleming and Ernst Chain, are estimated to have saved over 200 million lives, and he is consequently regarded by the Australian scientific and medical community as one of its greatest figures.
Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin, launching the age of antiobiotics
The discovery of penicillin, one of the world’s first antibiotics, marks a true turning point in human history when doctors finally had a tool that could completely cure their patients of deadly infectious diseases.
Arthur Eddington publishes The Internal Constitution of the Stars correctly speculating about the existence of nuclear fusion
At that time, the source of stellar energy was a complete mystery; Eddington correctly speculated that the source was fusion of hydrogen into helium, liberating enormous energy according to Einstein’s equation E = mc2.
Constance Markievicz becomes first woman elected to U.K.’s House of Commons
Constance Georgine Markievicz was an Irish politician, revolutionary, nationalist, suffragist, socialist, and the first woman elected to the Westminster Parliament. On 28 December 1918, she was the first woman elected to the UK House of Commons, though, being in Holloway Prison at the time and in accordance with party policy, she did not take her seat. She was also one of the first women in the world to hold a cabinet position, as Ireland’s Minister for Labour from 1919 to 1922.
Japanese scientist Shibasaburo Kitasato discovers the infectious agent of the bubonic plague
He traveled to Hong Kong in 1894 at the request of the Japanese government during an outbreak of the bubonic plague, and identified a bacterium that he concluded was causing the disease.