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<CENTER><FONT color=#ff0000 size=5>On this day</FONT> </CENTER>
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<LI>In 211, Lucius Septimius Severus, the Roman emperor responsible for making
the empire's government a military monarchy, died.
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<LI>In 1615, Giovanni Battista della Porta, an Italian physicist, philosopher
and writer on the properties of lenses, died.
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<LI>In 1783, England officially proclaimed an end to hostilities in America.
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<LI>In 1787, Shays' Rebellion, an uprising of Massachusetts farmers led by
Daniel Shays, ended with defeat at Petersham.
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<LI>In 1789, presidential electors met and chose George Washington as America's
first president.
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<LI>In 1874, the Battle of Kumasi ended the Ashanti War between Britain and
Ghana.
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<LI>In 1904, the Russo-Japanese war began when Japan laid siege to Port Arthur.
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<LI>In 1924, Mahatma Gandhi was released after spending two years in jail in
Bombay.
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<LI>In 1927, British driver Malcolm Campbell broke the world land speed record
in his car Bluebird, driving at 174.224 miles per hour.
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<LI>In 1938, Adolf Hitler became Germany's war minister and Joachim von
Ribbentrop took over foreign affairs.
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<LI>In 1945, Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin met at
Yalta in the Crimea to discuss plans for the defeat of the Axis powers and to
decide on the post-war future.
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<LI>In 1948, Ceylon became a self-governing independent state within the
Commonwealth.
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<LI>In 1962, Francisco Orlich Bolmarich was elected president of Costa Rica.
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<LI>In 1966, an All Nippon Airways Boeing 727 jet aircraft crashed in Tokyo Bay,
killing 133 passengers and crew.
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<LI>In 1971, British carmaker Rolls Royce declared itself bankrupt.
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<LI>In 1972, Zambian President Kenneth Kuanda banned the opposition United
Progressive Party and arrested its leader, Simon Kapepwe, together with more
than 120 members.
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<LI>In 1974, Patricia Hearst, granddaughter of the late William Randolph Hearst,
was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army.
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<LI>In 1974, Grenada achieved independence within the British Commonwealth.
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<LI>In 1976, an earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale and resulting
mudslides caused the deaths of 23,000 people just north of Guatemala City; 1.5
million people were made homeless.
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<LI>In 1976, in Mozambique, the capital, Lourenco Marques, was renamed Maputo.
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<LI>In 1978, Junius Jayawardene was sworn in as Sri Lanka's first president.
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<LI>In 1982, in Britain, Laker Airways, pioneer of cheap transatlantic air
fares, collapsed.
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<LI>In 1983, Karen Carpenter, vocalist with the internationally successful
brother and sister duo The Carpenters, died of anorexia nervosa.
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<LI>In 1987, Liberace, U.S. pianist and showman, died.
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<LI>In 1990, nine Israeli tourists and two Egyptian guards were killed when
masked assailants opened fire on a bus en route to Cairo.
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<LI>In 1992, loyal troops put down an attempted coup against President Carlos
Andres Perez in Venezuela.
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<LI>In 1994, mortar bombs killed nine people in a food line in Serb-besieged
Sarajevo.
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<LI>In 1994, Polish Finance Minister Marek Borowski resigned after clashing with
Prime Minister Waldemar Pawlak.
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<LI>In 1996, a Colombian cargo plane crashed into homes near the Paraguayan
capital Asuncion, killing at least 22 people.
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<LI>In 1997, 73 Israeli soldiers were killed when two military helicopters
collided in midair in a storm in northern Israel.
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<LI>In 1997, 16 months after O.J. Simpson was cleared of murder charges, a civil
trial jury blamed him for the killings of his ex-wife and her friend and ordered
him to pay $8.5 million in compensatory damages.
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