Linus Torvalds releases his first version of the Linux operating system kernel (0.01 of Linux)" called 'Freax' in the makefile to the world and announces it through a Usenet posting on a newsgroup which could be found on the ftp server at the Helsinki University of Technology (HUT). The Linux operating system is a Unix-like operating system kernel and is distributed under GNU General Public License. The original kernel was based on earlier work done by Richard Stallman on the GNU Project, started in 1984. The majority of the servers on the internet I.E. (where this site and millions of others) use Apache software that runs on top of the Linux kernel.

A new steam-powered car land speed was broken, for the first time in over a century. In two trials, Charles Burnett III reached 136 mph (136 km/h) and 151 mph (243 km/h) in. The previous record was over a century old, set by Fred Marriott on 26 Jan 1906, in a Stanley Steamer racing car. Burnett drove a British-built car named Inspiration at the Edwards Air Force Base in California, U.S.A. The 25-ft long, 3-ton car burned liquid petroleum gas to create 400°C steam from 12 suitcase-sized boilers. The steam drove a two-stage turbine at 13,000 rpm which powered the wheels. The design was an outgrowth of a 1997 student project at Suthampton University. Setting a record requires two trials in opposite direction to average out any wind effect.