| Year | Event
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| 1734 | Daniel Boone, one of the nation's most famous frontiersmen, was born just east of Reading, Pennsylvania.
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| 1889 | The states of North and South Dakota are admitted to the Union.
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| 1903 | Under orders from President Roosevelt, the U.S. Navy drops anchor at Colon, Panama, a newly formed country formerly part of Columbia. The US wanted Panama so as to build a canal. The military moves in to insure Panamanian independence from Colombia and then to protect construction of canal, November 4-November 6, remaining throughout the construction of the canal, until January 21, 1914. [The fact that the U.S. wanted to build a canal there and Columbia would not cooperate, had nothing to do with the formation of this tiny state, of course.]
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| 1914 | Russia declares war on Turkey.
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| 1917 | The Balfour Declaration: British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour, issues a letter, aimed at Jewish support for the Allies in the First World War, in which he says the Jews ought to have their on state -- carved out of Palestine.
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| 1951 | The Boggs Act, becomes law. In spite of no reliable evidence that marijuana was as harmful as cocaine, the act, for the first time, made penalties for violation of the marijuana laws the same as those for narcotic drugs. The act also introduced, at the federal level, the concept of minimum mandatory jail sentences for drug law offenders and in general increased the penalties.
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| 1983 | President Reagan (R) signs the law that designates the third Monday in January as "Martin Luther King" national holiday.
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| 1994 | "Healthy Meals for Healthy Americans Act" becomes law. A great boon for the farmers and does little harm to other citizens.
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| 2008 | 2) Federal Reserve, Treasury and FDIC provide assistance to Citigroup in the form of purchasing $25 billion in preferred stock under TARP and guaranteeing losses on the bulk of $306 billion in problem assets.
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