2021
US President Joe Biden made Juneteenth a federal holiday.
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1994
Police captured O.J. Simpson for murder charges after a 90-minute police chase.
The police hunt was captured and broadcast on live TV as it happened.
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1985
The Discovery Channel started broadcasting.
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1985
Sultan bin Salman Al Saud became the first Arab and the first Muslim to fly into space.
The sultan flew aboard NASA’s Discovery Space Shuttle on mission STS-51-G as a payload specialist. He was also the first member of a royal family to fly into space. The shuttle took off from the Kennedy Space Center and landed seven days later at the Edwards Air Force Base in California.
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1971
US President Richard Nixon declared a War on Drugs.
In his press conference, he stated that the abuse of narcotics was public enemy #1.
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1970
Rock band Led Zeppelin started their last tour of Europe.
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1967
China performed its first thermonuclear test.
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1963
The US Supreme Court decided that public schools aren’t allowed to study the bible or pray.
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1939
France carried out its last public execution.
German serial killer Eugen Weidman was executed by guillotine outside the Saint-Pierre prison in Versailles after being convicted of six murders. The display put on by the general public was so hysterical that the French President banned all further public executions.
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1928
Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic.
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1894
The Polio epidemic took hold for the first time in the US at Rutland, Vermont.
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1885
The Statue of Liberty arrived in New York City.
The statue was a gift given from France as a sign of friendship.
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1631
Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan I decided to begin construction of the Taj Mahal.
It happened after his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, died while giving birth. The emperor spent the next 20 years building the Taj Mahal as his wife’s tomb.
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1579
Sir Francis Drake discovered New Albion in California.
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