| Year | Event
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| 1859 | John Brown raids the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry, with the intention of obtaining arms to use to liberate slaves. Murders 4 men and takes hostages. He is captured two days later by Colonel Robert E. Lee of the U.S. Army. Brown is hanged on December 2.
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| 1918 | "ANARCHIST EXCLUSION ACT" (a.k.a., "Alien Act", "Immigration Act") enacted into law. In this "Land of the Free", if you expressed doubts about our political system, you were ordered to leave. Attorney General Palmer took the opportunity to harass anyone he didn't like. Repealed in 1952.
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| 1962 | The Cuban missile crisis began as President Kennedy (D) was informed by his aides that reconnaissance photographs had revealed the presence of missile bases in Cuba.
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| 1964 | China tests their first atomic explosion.
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| 1978 | Cardinal Karol Wojtyla of Poland was made Pope John Paul II.
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| 1982 | The "Garn-St Germain Depository Institutions Act" becomes law. The act reduced regulation of the Savings and Loans institutions yet allowed the insurance of deposits to continue. This resulted in the great "Savings and Loan Scandal" which cost the taxpayers several hundred billion dollars.
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| 1986 | US government closes down due to budget problems. A very stupid and costly act, which may become an annual event.
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| 1991 | Luby's Cafeteria mass shooting. Armed with two handguns and 17-round and 15-round large capacity ammunition magazines, George Hennard, 35, crashed his pickup into Luby's Cafeteria during a busy lunch hour. Stepping out of the vehicle, he began shooting randomly, killing 23 and wounding 20. After firing approximately 100 shots over 10 minutes, Hennard shot himself in the head.
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| 1995 | The FBI issues a resolution defining its "deadly force" policy.
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| 1998 | Amartya Sen, formerly of Harvard, currently at Trinity College, Cambridge, England, won the 1998 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science. He is regarded as an expert in the field of "Social Choice" and "Welfare Economics".
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| 2002 | President Bush (R) signs a resolution by the U.S. Congress authorizing him to use force against Iraq if necessary. Congress abdicates its Constitutional responsibility to declare war.
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| 2004 | Ninth month of the Muslim Lunar based calendar (in 2004). It is during this month that Muslims observe the Fast of Ramadan.
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