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1857
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New York City's first elevated railroad officially opened for business.
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1890
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The U.S. Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act.
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1937
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American aviation pioneer, Amelia Earhart, disappeared in the Central Pacific during an attempt to fly around the world at the equator.
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1947
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An object crashed near Roswell, NM. The U.S. Army Air Force insisted it was a weather balloon, but eyewitness accounts led to speculation that it might have been an alien spacecraft.
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1961
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Ernest Hemingway shot himself to death at his home in Ketchum, ID.
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1964
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U.S. President Johnson signed the "Civil Rights Act of 1964" into law. The act made it illegal in the U.S. to discriminate against others because of their race.
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1976
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The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was not inherently cruel or unusual.
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1980
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U.S. President Jimmy Carter reinstated draft registration for males 18 years of age.
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1985
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General Motors announced that it was installing electronic road maps as an option in some of its higher-priced cars.
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1994
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Colombian soccer player, Andres Escobar, was shot to death in Medellin. Ten days earlier he had accidentally scored a goal against his own team in the World Cup competition.
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1998
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The Cable News Network retracted a story that alleged that U.S. commandos had used nerve gas to kill American defectors during the Vietnam War.
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