Today in 1622, 401 years ago: A hurricane overruns a Spanish fleet bound from Havana to Cadiz and sinks the galleon Atocha. Only five men are rescued, but 260 passengers and 200 million pesos are buried with the Atocha under 50 feet of water.
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Today in 2000, 23 years ago: Tuvalu joins the UN.
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Today in 1839, 184 years ago: The United Kingdom declares war on the Qing dynasty of China.
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Today in 2003, 20 years ago: the BeOS trial was closed with the payment of $23.2 million to Be Incorporated, after which Microsoft ceased to be accused of improper practices.
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Today in 1836, 187 years ago: Sam Houston is elected as the first president of the Republic of Texas.
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Today in 1945, 78 years ago: Iva Toguri D'Aquino, a Japanese American suspected of being wartime radio propagandist Tokyo Rose, is arrested in Yokohama.
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Today in 1791, 232 years ago: Olympe de Gouges writes the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen.
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Today in 1856, 167 years ago: near Tipitapa (Nicaragua) in the San Jacinto hacienda, about 100 Nicaraguan troops of the Army of the North under the command of Colonel José Dolores Estrada Vado reject, in a skirmish, an attack by 60 American filibusters by the adventurer William Walker, being the prelude to what 9 days later would be the Battle of San Jacinto.
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Today in 2012, 11 years ago: the animated series Jelly Jamm premieres
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Today in 1936, 87 years ago: the American Beryl Markham flies alone over the Atlantic in an east-west direction, being the first woman to achieve it.
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Today in 1960, 63 years ago: Poet Léopold Sédar Senghor is the first elected President of Senegal.
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Today in 1866, 157 years ago: in Mexico - within the framework of the Second French Invasion -, the Mexican Republican forces (under the command of Porfirio Díaz) defeated the French army in the battle of Juchitán.
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Today in 1840, 183 years ago: the opera Un giorno di regno (A day of reign), by Giuseppe Verdi, is premiered at the Teatro della Scala in Milan.
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Today in 1961, 62 years ago: in Yugoslavia representatives of 24 nations meet in Belgrade to hold the first Conference of Non-Aligned Countries.
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Today in 1781, 242 years ago: in New Spain (in the current state of California) -in the region known by the natives as the Smoke Valley - the Spaniards Gaspar de Portolá and Junípero Serra founded the Pueblo de la Reina de los Ángeles (the current city of Los Angeles).
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Today in 1982, 41 years ago: in Beijing (China), the Communist Congress decides to abandon Maoism.
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Today in 1839, 184 years ago: Battle of Kowloon: British vessels open fire on Chinese war junks enforcing a food sales embargo on the British community in China in the first armed conflict of the First Opium War.
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Today in 1977, 46 years ago: The Golden Dragon massacre takes place in San Francisco.
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Today in 1951, 72 years ago: The first live transcontinental television broadcast takes place in San Francisco, from the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference.
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Today in 1948, 75 years ago: in the crown of the Netherlands Queen Wilhelmina abdicates and is succeeded by her daughter Juliana.
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