2017
North Carolina repealed its controversial bathroom law that restricted transgender use.
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2017
An orbital-class rocket was successfully reused for the first time.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 was used to carry a satellite into near-Earth orbit. What was particularly astounding about this otherwise routine flight was that it re-used the first-stage booster from a previous Falcon 9 flight. The booster is the most expensive part of a Falcon 9, so being able to reuse this was a huge milestone in the history of spaceflight.
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2001
Swimmer Michael Phelps smashed the world record for the 200-meter butterfly swim at just 15 years old.
He swam an impressive 1:54.58 and held the record for 18 years.
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1987
Vincent van Gogh’s famous painting “Sunflowers” was sold for an incredible $39.7 million, the most ever paid for a painting.
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1984
A police detective offered to split a lottery ticket with his regular waitress at a pizzeria in Yonkers, NY. She ended up with a $3 million tip!
Robert Cunningham initially made the offer as a joke, but the waitress played along, and they each picked three numbers. The following weekend Cunningham entered with the winning ticket of a $6 million jackpot.
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1981
Someone tried to shoot President Ronald Reagan.
John Hinckley Jr. wounded the president and three others. His belief was that killing the president would impress actress Jodie Foster.
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1959
The Dalai Lama received political asylum in India after fleeing from China.
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1949
Riots broke out in Iceland when the Icelandic parliament decided to join NATO.
What initially started as a peaceful protest quickly turned violent, and the Icelandic police were forced to use tear gas to disperse the unruly mob. Iceland proceeded to join NATO anyway, an act that brought Iceland into the Cold War.
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1939
The Heinkel He 100 fighter set a world airspeed record of 463 mph (745 km/h).
The He 100 was a German pre-World War II fighter aircraft design from Heinkel.
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1870
The US adopted the 15th Amendment, guaranteeing citizens the right to vote.
The amendment reads: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
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1867
The United States bought Alaska from the Russian Empire.
Dubbed “Stewart’s Folly” by the press, the US paid $7.2 million, which worked out at about 2 cents per acre of land!
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1858
Hyman Lipman patented the pencil with an eraser on top.
His patent included a metal ferrule to keep the eraser in place.
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1796
German mathematician Carl Friedrich constructed the first heptadecagon using a ruler and a compass.
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