2021
Major breakthrough in development of nuclear fission energy when experiment produces 59 megajoules of energy over five seconds at JET Laboratory, UK (reported Feb 2022).
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2020
US President-elect Joe Biden receives the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine live on TV.
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2012
Psy’s music video for “Gangnam Style” surpassed one billion views on YouTube, becoming the first video to do so in the website’s history.
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2005
Elton John and his partner David Furnish registered their civil partnership at Windsor Town Hall on the first day civil partnerships could legally be performed in England.
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1988
Antonov An-255 Mriya, the largest airplane in the world, flew for the first time.
Initially designed by the Soviet Union to transport rockets and shuttles for their space program, this behemoth holds several world records for transporting the heaviest payloads. The Soviet Union made only one Antonov AN-255. After the Soviet Union no longer needed it, it was placed in storage for nearly a decade before being fixed up to fly as a commercial cargo plane in 2001.
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1978
John Wayne Gacy was arrested.
Police in Des Plaines, Illinois, arrested John Wayne Gacy after having him under surveillance. While in custody, Gacy claimed to have killed someone in self-defense, which he buried in his garage. Police searched the house and found at least three bodies in the house’s crawl space.
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1970
Elvis Presley met President Richard Nixon in the White House.
The image of this meeting became the most requested photo from the entire National Archives.
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1968
The first manned Moon voyage, the Apollo 8, launched with Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders.
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1951
The groundbreaking TV soap opera “Sua Vida Me Pertence” premiered in Brazil.
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1937
The first full-length animated feature film, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” premiered.
It was the earliest of the Walt Disney Animated Classics series and premiered at the Carthay Circle Theater.
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1928
President Coolidge signed a bill authorizing The Boulder Canyon Project Act, which allowed for the construction of what is known today as the Hoover Dam.
Upon completion, the Hoover Dam created the largest reservoir in the United States, covering 248 square miles.
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1914
The first feature-length silent film comedy, “Tillie’s Punctured Romance,” was released, starring Marie Dressler, Mabel Normand, and Charlie Chaplin.
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1913
The first crossword puzzle was printed.
Arthur Wynne came up with the idea, which was printed in the New York World with 32 clues. This new puzzle became popular immediately!
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1898
French scientists Pierre and Marie Curie discovered radium.
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1237
A Mongol horde led by Batu Khan conquered and sacked the Russian city of Ryazan.
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