Today in 1923, 100 years ago: in Spain, Miguel Primo de Rivera becomes dictator.

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Today in 1958, 65 years ago: The first two German post-war rockets, designed by the German engineer Ernst Mohr, reach the upper atmosphere.

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Today in 1402, 621 years ago: Battle of Homildon Hill results in an English victory over Scotland.

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Today in 2005, 18 years ago: in Baghdad (Iraq), a series of attacks caused 154 deaths and more than 500 wounded, mostly Shiites. The terrorist group Al Qaeda claims responsibility for the attacks.

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Today in 2015, 8 years ago: first direct observation of a gravitational wave by the LIGO experiment.

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Today in 1814, 209 years ago: Battle of Baltimore: The poem Defence of Fort McHenry is written by Francis Scott Key. The poem is later used as the lyrics of The Star-Spangled Banner.

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Today in 2008, 15 years ago: Aeroflot Flight 821, a Boeing 737-500, crashes into a section of the Trans-Siberian Railway while on approach to Perm International Airport, in Perm, Russia, killing all 88 people on board.

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Today in 1984, 39 years ago: Joe Kittinger becomes the first person to cross the Atlantic Ocean alone in a hot air balloon.

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Today in 1966, 57 years ago: in South Africa, the segregationist Johannes B. Vorster takes over as prime minister.

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Today in 1997, 26 years ago: A German Air Force Tupolev Tu-154 and a United States Air Force Lockheed C-141 Starlifter collide in mid-air near Namibia, killing 33.

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Today in 1956, 67 years ago: The dike around the Dutch polder East Flevoland is closed.

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Today in 1988, 35 years ago: Hurricane Gilbert is the strongest recorded hurricane in the Western Hemisphere, later replaced by Hurricane Wilma in 2005 (based on barometric pressure).

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Today in 1971, 52 years ago: State police and National Guardsmen storm New York's Attica Prison to quell a prison revolt, which claimed 43 lives.

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Today in 1953, 70 years ago: Nikita Khrushchev is appointed General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

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Today in 1964, 59 years ago: Martin Luther King Jr. addresses a crowd of 20,000 West Berliners on Sunday, in Waldbühne.

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Today in 1993, 30 years ago: in Washington DC (United States) the Declaration of Principles for the autonomy of Gaza and Jericho is signed; the leaders Isaac Rabin and Yasser Arafat shake hands.

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Today in 1645, 378 years ago: Wars of the Three Kingdoms: Scottish Royalists are defeated by Covenanters at the Battle of Philiphaugh.

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Today in 1504, 519 years ago: in Spain the Catholic Monarchs published a Royal Decree ordering the erection of the Royal Chapel of Granada.

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Today in 1856, 167 years ago: in Tipitapa (Nicaragua), the 300 troops of the American filibuster William Walker enter, led by his friend Byron Cole, who the next day will attack the San Jacinto hacienda in the battle of the same name, being defeated by the troops of Colonel José Dolores Estrada Vado.

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Today in 1833, 190 years ago: an earthquake is recorded in the city of Moquegua (Peru).

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