Violent riots, perceived to have been instigated by a train fire that killed 59 Hindu pilgrims, broke out in the Indian state of Gujarat, killing at least 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, over three days.
The Sunday People revealed that James Humphreys, a notorious pornographer, had bribed a senior London police officer with a holiday to Cyprus and Beirut.
Two dissident Republic of Vietnam Air Force pilots bombed the Independence Palace in Saigon in a failed attempt to assassinate President Ngo Dinh Diem.
American biochemists Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben discovered carbon-14, a radioactive isotope of carbon, which is now used extensively as the basis of the radiocarbon dating method to date archaeological and geological samples.