| Year | Event
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| 1537 | The first complete English-language Bible (the Matthew Bible) is printed, with translations by William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale.
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| 1582 | Pope Gregory XIII implements the Gregorian Calendar. In Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain, October 4 of this year is followed directly by October 15.
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| 1824 | Mexico adopts a new constitution and becomes a federal republic.
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| 1830 | Creation of the state of Belgium after separation from The Netherlands.
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| 1957 | At 10:28 P.M. Moscow time the world's first artificial satellite was launched from Tyuratam, Soviet Union. We panicked! The space race was on! (A nice side benefit: establishment of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1958 and passage of the National Defense Education Act.)
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| 1961 | "Wetlands Act", P.L. 87-383, becomes law. It allows "takings" of private property by the government.
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| 1989 | Canada announces that passenger rail service will be cut in mid-January from 405 trains per week to 191 as the nation tries to reduce a national deficit that is 50 percent higher per capita than its southern neighbor's. Prime Minister Mulroney says the heavily subsidized service in some cases costs the government more than $400 every time a passenger boards a Via Rail train. (Quoted from The People's Chronology,from Henry Holt and Company, Inc. Copyright © 1995, 1996 by James Trager. All rights reserved.)
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| 1993 | China conducted an underground nuclear test at the Lop Nur test site in northwest China.
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| 1994 | This week's Time magazine says that the Census Bureau reports that "the number of Americans living under the poverty line last year - defined as an income of $14,763 for a family of four - climbed to more than 39 million, or 15% of the nation's population." We simply need to send more money -- a few more trillion dollars, in fact.
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| 2005 | Today's Example of a Most Interesting Government Purchase: The Army Small Computer Program (ASCP), has issued a final request for proposals (RFP) for its massive upcoming Information Technology Enterprise Solutions-2 (ITES-2S) services contract to the tune of $20 Billion!
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