2019
The first photo of a black hole that was taken in 2017 was announced to the public.
The black hole is 6.5 billion times the size of Earth and is 55 million light-years away.
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2012
Apple Inc became the largest company in the world.
On this day, its value reached over $600 billion.
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1998
The UK, Ireland, and Northern Ireland governments signed the Good Friday Agreement.
The agreements all but stopped The Troubles, the thirty-year conflict in Northern Ireland. The Good Friday Agreement came into effect on December 2, 1999, after being approved by voters across Ireland in May.
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1970
Paul McCartney announced he would leave The Beatles.
McCartney’s departure followed John Lennon’s split from the group in September 1969. By January 9, 1975, the Beatles’ partnership was legally dissolved.
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1953
The first-ever color 3D movie, “House of Wax,” premiered in New York.
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1947
Jackie Robinson signed the first Major League Baseball contract for a Black ballplayer.
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1912
The Titanic departed Southampton for its first and only journey.
Just four days into her journey to New York City, the ship crashed into an iceberg and sank.
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1877
A 14-year-old girl performed the world’s first human cannonball in London, England.
The acrobat was shot out 26.5 feet (6 meters) from the cannon.
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1872
Arbor Day was celebrated for the first time in America in Nebraska.
The world’s first Arbor Day was held all the way back in 1594, but when the idea caught on in the US, it was wildly popular. On the first American Arbor Day in Nebraska, it’s estimated that as many as a million trees were planted.
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1849
Walter Hunt patented the safety pin.
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1815
Mount Tambora erupted in Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia).
This eruption was one of the world’s most volatile ever recorded and claimed the lives of 88,000 people. The last time there was an eruption that powerful was in 180 AD!
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1710
The Statute of Anne became the UK’s first copyright law.
Also known as the Copyright Act of 1709, the act gave publishers exclusive rights to their writing for up to 21 years from first publication.
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1516
The world’s first Jewish ghetto was established in Venice, Italy.
Venetian Jews were allowed to live only in the city’s glass blowing foundries, or “ghèto” in Italian.
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837 AD
Halley’s Comet made its closest approach to Earth in recorded history.
It was said that the comet’s tail took up half the sky, and the comet itself was as bright as Venus. While this was the closest it has ever passed by Earth, it was still about 3.7 million miles (6 million km) away.
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