At Kitty Hawk, the Wright brothers make the first controlled, powered, heavier-than-air flight.
Guglielmo Marconi reports receiving a radio signal in Newfoundland transmitted from Cornwall across the Atlantic.
After Spain cedes the Philippines to the United States, forces of the Philippine Republic fight American rule but are defeated.
The United States defeats Spain, gaining Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines, while Cuba is freed from Spanish rule.
RMS Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic on her maiden voyage after striking an iceberg; more than 1,500 people die.
The US-built Panama Canal officially opens, linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
US Army troops kill hundreds of Lakota people, many of them women and children, at Wounded Knee, South Dakota.