On this date in 1988, heavy rains struck the southern California town of Blue Jay. Flash flooding from the more than five inches in rain resulted in two deaths, 10 injuries, and damages exceeding $1 million.
- Foundation of Aguascalientes (one of 32 Federal Entities of Mexico)
- Tsar Peter the Great becomes "All-Russian Imperator"
- Nobel prize for literature awarded to Joseph Brodsky
- Second longest 9 inning World Series game (4:12) as Marlins and Indians were tied 7-7 going into the 9th, Mariners win 14-11
- India launches its first unmanned lunar mission Chandrayaan-1.
- 6 Italian scientists are convicted of manslaughter for their failure to predict the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake
- Louis Riel, Canadian politician, founder of the province of Manitoba and leader of the Métis people of the Canadian prairies, born in Red River Colony, Rupert's Land, British North America (d. 1885)
- Jacobus Herculas [Uncle Koos] de la Rey, South African politician
- Paul Arma, Hungarian-French composer, born in Budapest (d. 1987)
- John Gould, American humorist, essayist, and columnist (d. 2003)
