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1978 |
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Police in Des Plaines, IL, arrested John W. Gacy Jr. and began unearthing the remains of 33 men and boys that Gacy was later convicted of killing. |
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1988 |
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270 people were killed when Pan Am Boeing 747 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, due to a terrorist attack. |
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2002 |
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Larry Mayes was released after spending 21 years in prison for a rape that maintained that he never committed. He was the 100th person in the U.S. to be released after DNA tests were performed.
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1909 |
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McKinley and Washington schools of Berkeley, CA, became the first authorized, junior-high schools in the U.S. |
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1914 |
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Marie Dressler, Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand and Mack Swain appeared in the first six-reel, feature-length comedy. The film was entitled "Tillie’s Punctured Romance". |
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1925 |
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Eisenstein's film "Battleship Potemkin" was first shown in Moscow. |
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1937 |
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Walt Disney debuted the first, full-length, animated feature in Hollywood, CA. The movie was "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." |
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1958 |
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Charles de Gaulle was elected to a seven-year term as the first president of the Fifth Republic of France. |
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1998 |
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The first vaccine for Lyme disease was approved. |
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1620 |
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The "Mayflower", and its passengers, pilgrims from England, landed at Plymouth Rock, MA. |
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1948 |
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The state of Eire (formerly the Irish Free State) declared its independence. |
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1971 |
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The U.N. Security Council chose Kurt Waldheim to succeed U Thant as secretary-general. |
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1990 |
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In a German television interview, Saddam Hussein declared that he would not withdraw from Kuwait by the UN deadline. |
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1995 |
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The city of Bethlehem passed from Israeli to Palestinian control. |
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1996 |
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After two years of denials, U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich admitted violating House ethics rules. |
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1998 |
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Israel's parliament voted overwhelmingly for early elections. It was the signal to the demise of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-line government. |
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1998 |
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A Chinese court sentenced two dissidents to long prison terms for attempting to organize an opposition party. A third man was sentenced to 12 years in prison on December 22, 1998. |
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2001 |
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The Islamic militant group Hamas released a statement that said it was suspending suicide bombings and mortar attacks in Israel. |
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1913 |
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The "New York World" Sunday edition included a crossword puzzle as an added feature of the "Fun" supplement. It was the first crossword puzzle to be published. |
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1898 |
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Scientists Pierre and Marie Curie discovered the radioactive element radium. |
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1849 |
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The first ice-skating club in America was formed in Philadelphia, PA. |
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1944 |
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Horse racing was banned in the United States until after the end of World War II. |
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1951 |
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Joe DiMaggio announced his retirement from major league baseball. |
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1981 |
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Cincinnati defeated Bradley 75-73 in seven overtimes. The game was the longest collegiate basketball game in the history of NCAA Division I competition. |
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1968 |
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Apollo 8 was launched on a mission to orbit the moon. The craft landed safely in the Pacific Ocean on December 27. |
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1879: Ibsen's "A Doll's House" was first performed in Copenhagen, Denmark, with a revised happy ending. |
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1991 |
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Eleven of the 12 former Soviet republics proclaimed the birth of the Commonwealth of Independent States. |
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1945 |
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U.S. Gen. George S. Patton died in Heidelberg, Germany, of injuries from a car accident. |
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