Today in 1857, 166 years ago: The SS Central America sinks about 160 miles east of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, drowning a total of 426 passengers and crew, including Captain William Lewis Herndon. The ship was carrying 13–15 tons of gold from the California Gold Rush.
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Today in 1998, 25 years ago: the Pact of Estella was signed in Estella.
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Today in 1581, 442 years ago: Philip II is proclaimed King of Portugal.
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Today in 1911, 112 years ago: the singer Ignacio Jacinto Villa Fernández, better known as Bola de Nieve, was born.
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Today in 1972, 51 years ago: The San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit system begins passenger service.
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Today in 1954, 69 years ago: First televised election of Miss America.
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Today in 1826, 197 years ago: William Morgan is kidnapped and never seen alive again.
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Today in 1802, 221 years ago: France annexes the Kingdom of Piedmont.
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Today in 1968, 55 years ago: Air France Flight 1611 crashes off Nice, France, killing 89 passengers and six crew.
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Today in 1683, 340 years ago: Battle of Vienna: Coalition forces, including the famous winged Hussars, led by Polish King John III Sobieski lift the siege laid by Ottoman forces.
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Today in 1792, 231 years ago: The Hope Diamond is stolen along with other French crown jewels when six men break into the house where they are stored.
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Today in 1697, 326 years ago: Austria's decisive victory against the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Zenta.
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Today in 1976, 47 years ago: A bomb planted by a Croatian terrorist, Zvonko Bušić, is found at New York's Grand Central Terminal; one NYPD officer is killed trying to defuse it.
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Today in 2001, 22 years ago: the OAS Assembly approves the Inter-American Democratic Charter.
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Today in 2007, 16 years ago: partial solar eclipse, seen from Antarctica, Argentina, Chile and Peru.
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Today in 1997, 26 years ago: NASA's Mars Global Surveyor reaches Mars.
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Today in 1943, 80 years ago: German troops occupy Corsica and Kosovo-Metohija.
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Today in 1943, 80 years ago: World War II: German troops occupy Corsica and Kosovo-Metohija ending the Italian occupation of Corsica.
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Today in 2001, 22 years ago: The September 11 attacks, a series of coordinated terrorist attacks killing 2,996 people using four aircraft hijacked by 19 members of al-Qaeda. Two aircraft crash into the World Trade Center in New York City, a third crashes into The Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, and a fourth into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
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Today in 1978, 45 years ago: Jimmy Carter (President of the United States), Anwar el-Sadat (President of Egypt) and Menachem Begin (Prime Minister of Israel) meet at Camp David and agree on a framework for peace between Israel and Egypt and a comprehensive peace in the Middle East.
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