2020
Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders dropped out of the race for US president.
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2019
Researchers discovered that as many as 600 million birds die in the US every year after flying into skyscrapers.
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2013
The Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher died at 87 years old.
Thatcher was Britain’s first prime minister, and over 2,000 guests attended her funeral on April 17.
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1993
NASA’s Discovery space shuttle launched on mission STS-56.
The primary payload of STS-56 was the ATLAS-2 laboratory, which collected data on the Sun’s effect on Earth’s ozone layer during the space shuttle’s flight. The astronauts experimented during the mission with amateur radio equipment. They were able to successfully make radio contact with a few schools in the US, as well as the Soviet Mir space station.
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1986
Clint Eastwood was elected as Mayor of Carmel, California.
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1916
Racer Bob Burman died after crashing his race car in Corona, California.
Burman’s riding mechanic, a policeman, and three spectators were killed in the accident.
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1906
The first person in the world to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s died.
Auguste Deter was born on May 16, 1950, in Cassell, Germany, and lived a relatively normal and happy life until her late forties. Over a short few years, Auguste’s mental condition rapidly deteriorated. At first, she showed symptoms similar to dementia, but by her 50th birthday, Auguste started to lose control of herself completely. She was admitted later that year to a mental institution, where she spent the rest of her life.
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1879
New York City started selling milk in glass bottles, a first for the USA.
It was done in a move to make the sale and consumption of milk safer and more sanitary.
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1796
German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss became the first person to prove quadratic reciprocity law.
The law of quadratic reciprocity is a theory from modular arithmetic giving conditions for solving quadratic equations modulo prime numbers.
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1766
The first idea of a fire escape was patented.
The escape consisted of a wicker basket attached to a pulley and chain.
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1271
One of the world’s most important medieval castles, Krak des Chevaliers, was conquered by Sultan Baibars.
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1093
The iconic historical Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire, England, was dedicated to Bishop Walkelin.
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217 AD
Roman Emperor Caracalla was stabbed to death by a guard while urinating.
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