On December 27

Acting president and prime minister of South Korea Han Duck-soo was impeached by the National Assembly.

During protests in Tehran against the recent presidential election, Iranian security forces opened fire on demonstrators.

Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated while leaving a Pakistan People's Party political rally at Liaqat National Bagh in Rawalpindi.

Riots erupted in Mombasa, Kenya, after Mwai Kibaki was declared the winner of the presidential election—the first event in a political, economic, and humanitarian crisis.

The human-cloning company Clonaid claimed to have performed the first reproductive cloning of a human, but provided no evidence for the claim.

Loyalist Volunteer Force leader Billy Wright was assassinated in HM Prison Maze by members of the Irish National Liberation Army.

The body of murdered American primatologist Dian Fossey was discovered inside her cabin in Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda.

Soviet–Afghan War: Soviet troops stormed Tajbeg Palace outside Kabul and killed Afghan president Hafizullah Amin and his 100–150 elite guards.

Indonesian National Revolution: Queen Juliana of the Netherlands signed papers that relinquished sovereignty of most of the Dutch East Indies, officially recognising the independence of Indonesia.

A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck central Turkey, destroying 90 per cent of the buildings in the area, and causing over 32,000 deaths.

New York City's Radio City Music Hall (pictured) opened with the world's largest auditorium at the time.

The Imperial Japanese Navy commissioned Hōshō (pictured), the world's first purpose-built aircraft carrier.

HMS Beagle departed Plymouth, England, on a voyage to South America that established Charles Darwin (pictured) as a naturalist.

Citizens of New Netherland presented the Flushing Remonstrance to Peter Stuyvesant, the director general of the colonial province, requesting an exemption to his ban on Quaker worship.

A period of unrest in Wittenberg following the arrival of three men of the Radical Reformation, known as the Zwickau prophets, was quelled after Martin Luther's release from custody.

The reconstructed Hagia Sophia in Constantinople was inaugurated; built as a church, it later became a mosque and a museum.