2021
Novavax COVID-19 vaccine receives its first emergency use authorization in Indonesia. The first protein-based covid vaccine.
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2021
Global death toll from COVID-19 passes 5 million according to Johns Hopkins, with estimates the true toll is at least twice as high.
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2018
Palau’s archipelago became the first country in the world to ban the use of sunscreen containing harmful chemicals that destroy reefs.
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2001
Australia, Canada, and Turkey announced they would send armed forces to Afghanistan.
The three nations joined the US in its war on Afghanistan after the Al Qaeda terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The war ended nearly twenty years later, on August 30, 2021.
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1993
The Maastricht Treaty came into effect, and with it, the European Union was formed.
The original twelve nations that signed the treaty were Spain, Portugal, Germany, the Irish Republic, France, Denmark, Great Britain, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Greece.
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1986
A leak at a chemical factory in Basel, Switzerland, caused the Rhine to turn red.
After a fire broke out and caused damage to a storage unit, thousands of highly poisonous chemicals leaked into the Rhine river, causing it to turn red. The substances killed over half a million fish.
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1986
Jankenteam’s Alex Kidd in Miracle World was released in Japan for the Sega Master System.
At its release, Alex Kidd in Miracle World was one of the highest-rated 2D platformers. It was supposed to be a Dragon Ball game that tied into the manga series, but Sega’s Dragon Ball license expired during development. So instead of canning the game, they created an entirely new storyline!
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1963
The Arecibo Ionospheric Observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, was officially opened.
The observatory held the largest single-aperture telescope in the world until China’s Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope surpassed it. The observatory was initially constructed to study the Earth’s ionosphere so that the US Department of Defence could better detect incoming missiles.
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1870
President Ulysses S. Grant founded the US Weather Bureau.
The president ordered for national weather observations to be made after a range of natural disasters occurred. Initially, forecasts were only given 24 hours in advance but gave the public chance to prepare.
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1870
The United States Weather Bureau made its first comprehensive weather forecast.
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1848
The first WHSmith railway bookstore opened at London Euston Railway Station, London, UK.
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1800
US President John Adams became the first president to move into the White House.
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1611
William Shakespeare had his first know performance of “The Tempest.”
The performance was at the Whitehall Palace and performed for James I and his English Royal Court.
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1604
The first known performance of William Shakespeare’s “Othello” occurred at Whitehall Palace, London.
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1570
The All Saints’ Day Flood destroyed the Dutch and German coastlines.
A tremendous series of severe storms created gigantic waves that drowned 20,000 people in the floods and left tens of thousands more homeless.
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1520
Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan became the first European to discover the Strait of Magellan.
The Strait of Magellan is the passage located south of mainland South America, connecting the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans.
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1512
Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling mural was presented to the public.
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1210
King John of England taxed all of England’s Jews for 66,000 Francs and imprisoned those who couldn’t pay.
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