| Year | Event
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| 1556 | In Oxford, Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer is burned at the stake. [It is not good to be on the wrong side when there is a regime change. Cranmer was Protestant Christian but the new queen, Mary, happened to be Catholic Christian.]
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| 1804 | The Code Napoleon (Code civil des Françaises) drafted by Boulay de la Meurthe (see 1804) and others goes into force immediately throughout France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and French colonies. The code combines Roman law with some of the radical reforms brought by the French Revolution with respect to conditions affecting the individual, tenure of property, order of inheritance, mortgages, contracts, and the like, and it will make French law as much admired as French culture.
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| 1907 | U.S. Marines land in Honduras, in a state of revolution, to protect American interests. Hundreds of times in the last 210 years, the United States has deployed its military forces in conflicts abroad, although the U.S. has only formally declared war on eleven occasions.
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| 1935 | Persia officially changed its name to Iran.
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| 1937 | In PUERTO RICO: During a rally protesting the imprisonment of Dr. Albizu Campos and his leadership, U.S. troops opened fire, killing 20 and wounding many more. In the aftermath, over 2,000 supporters of the Nationalist Party were jailed. (The Encyclopedia of World History)
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| 1960 | In South Africa, police open fire on black demonstrators in the Johannesburg suburb of Sharpeville. The fusillade kills 56 demonstrators and wounds 162, including 16 who die later. The "Sharpeville Massacre" will result in changes in how blacks are treated there.
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| 2003 | An Illinois court ordered the tobacco company Philip Morris to pay $10.1 billion for misleading consumers with the word "light." The company appeals.
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