Euro cash enters circulation in twelve European Union countries, replacing national currencies such as the franc, the Deutsche Mark and the lira.
In its largest enlargement, the EU admits ten countries, mostly from Central and Eastern Europe, including Poland, the Czech Republic and the Baltic states.
Portugal transfers sovereignty over Macau to China, ending more than four centuries of Portuguese presence.
The British and Irish governments and Northern Ireland's parties sign a peace agreement, ending most of the violence of the Troubles.
Dolly the sheep, the first mammal cloned from an adult somatic cell, is born at the Roslin Institute in Scotland.
A brief war between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia and Abkhazia; Russia afterwards recognises both regions as independent states.
After capturing Srebrenica, Bosnian Serb forces kill more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys; international courts have ruled it a genocide.