2022
Maya Angelou became the first African American woman featured on a US quarter.
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2018
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ net worth reached $106 billion.
With only Bill Gates passing the $100 billion milestone in 1999, this made Bezos the second man on Earth worth over $1 billion.
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2015
A large group of people was poisoned at a funeral in Mozambique.
Mourners at a funeral drank crocodile bile spiked beers. One hundred and sixty-nine people were hospitalized, and 72 lost their lives.
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1999
The Sopranos, the hit American crime drama, debuted on HBO.
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1990
China lifted martial law.
The law was imposed after the death of 10,000 protesters at the Tiananmen Square massacre.
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1982
Petra Schneider set a world record by swimming 1,500 meters freestyle in just 15:43:31.
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1975
The Soviet Union’s Soyuz 17 was successfully launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome atop a Soyuz rocket.
The mission was the first of two crewed missions to the USSR’s Salyut 4 Space Station, which was launched into orbit just weeks earlier on December 26. The mission set a new record for Soviet mission durations, lasting just over 29 days.
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1870
John D. Rockefeller created Standard Oil Company in Cleveland, Ohio.
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1863
London Underground was opened, making it the world’s oldest underground railway system.
The line originally only ran from London Paddington and Farringdon.
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1839
Indian Assam Tea was brought to the United Kingdom for the very first time.
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1642
King Charles I and the Queen fled from London to Oxford, Hampton Court.
He and his family had to escape London after he unsuccessfully attempted to overthrow the House of Commons by trying to arrest five members of parliament.
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1475
Stephen III of Moldavia defeated the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Vaslui.
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236 AD
Pope Fabian succeeded Anterus and became the twentieth pope of Rome.
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49 BC
Julius Caesar and his armies crossed the Rubicon River, an act that directly led to the Roman Civil War.
Caesar was a governor at the time, but when his governorship ended, the Roman Senate ordered him to disband his armies and return to Rome. Specifically, he was not to cross the Rubicon River with his troops, which at the time was Italy’s northern border.
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