| Year | Event
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|---|
| 1862 | On this date, President Lincoln ordered the execution of 39 of the 303 Santee Sioux Indians that had been condemned after a very hasty trial. A mass hanging of these unlucky ones was conducted on December 26, 1862 -- "the largest official mass execution in American history in which guilt of the executed cannot be positively determined".
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| 1865 | The 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery, was ratified by the states.
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| 1904 | The Supreme Court upholds the right of the state to enforce compulsory vaccination (in HENNING JACOBSON v. COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS). Justice Holmes later reasons that, "The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes." ("Opinion of Justice Holmes, U.S. Supreme Court Decision in Case of Buck vs. Bell, 1927." Birth Control Review. Volume XVII, Number 4 (April 1933), page 82.)
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| 1921 | Anglo-Irish Treaty signed. Subsequently, January 15, 1922, the treaty is ratified in which a Northern Ireland partition becomes the Irish Free State.
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| 1937 | In Palko v. Connecticut, 302 U.S. 319, the Supreme Court refuses to require states to protect people under the double jeopardy clause of the Bill of Rights.
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| 1973 | Gerald Ford (R) is sworn in as Vice President on this date -- the first time in U.S. history that the holder of the presidential office had not been elected either as president or as vice president -- to replace the disgraced Spiro T. Agnew (R), who had resigned.
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| 1980 | Jim Bakker and one of his buddies have some aggressive office sex with Jessica Hahn which ultimately turns out to be very expensive!
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| 2001 | Afghans celebrated in Kandahar after the Taliban lost the last major city under their control. U.S. troops were firing upon Taliban forces fleeing Kandahar, U.S. Gen. Tommy Franks said at a news conference at U.S. Central Command headquarters.
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| 2006 | Iraq Study Group Report released. Ignored.
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