Year | Event
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1791 | The Bill of Rights becomes U.S. law as Virginia ratifies the first 10 amendments to the Constitution (of the 12 proposed) drawn up in 1787. It seems that it can be ignored. See Vin Suprynowicz' excellent essay, "Our Second National Holiday", on this most important day in US history.
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1890 | Sioux chief "Sitting Bull", of 1876 Battle of the Little Big Horn fame, is arrested in a skirmish with U.S. troops and shot dead by police at Grand River.
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1967 | "The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967" enacted.
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1975 | New York City narrowly avoids bankruptcy by receiving loans of $2 billion from the Federal Government. Frugal taxpayers in Kansas wonder why they have to pay for the excesses of New York City.
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1978 | Joint communiques issued in Washington and Beijing announce establishment of US-PRC (China) diplomatic relations and termination of US-ROC (Taiwan) ties and Mutual Defense Treaty.
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1997 | Today's Example of a Most Interesting Government Purchase (from the CBD): From the Internal Revenue Service: "FINANCIAL AUDIT OF THE TREASURY ASSET FORFEITURE FUND", AMT $594,649.00, TO Gardiner, Kamya & Associates. [Wow, Forfeiture must be really a big business that they have to spend that much just for an audit!]
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1992 | In El Salvador, peace was formally proclaimed to end the 12-year civil war. Seventy-five thousand people had perished in the conflict.
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2005 | The New York Times reveals that "President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States" (first authorized in 2002 with subsequent orders -- while at the same time assuring the American people that he does not spy without court orders).
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-- | National 'Bill of Rights' Day
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