27 December 449

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

An estimated €30 million were stolen from a Sparkasse bank in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.

Bek Air Flight 2100 crashes during takeoff from Almaty International Airport in Almaty, Kazakhstan, killing 13.

Iranian election protests: On the Day of Ashura in Tehran, Iran, government security forces fire upon demonstrators.

Operation Cast Lead: Israel launches three-week operation on Gaza.

Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto is assassinated in a shooting incident.

Riots erupt in Mombasa, Kenya, after Mwai Kibaki is declared the winner of the presidential election, triggering a political, economic, and humanitarian crisis.

Radiation from an explosion on the magnetar SGR 1806-20 reaches Earth. It is the brightest extrasolar event known to have been witnessed on the planet.

Two truck bombs kill 72 and wound 200 at the pro-Moscow headquarters of the Chechen government in Grozny, Chechnya, Russia.

Burger King and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission order a recall of plastic Poké Ball containers after they are determined to be a choking hazard.