| Year | Event
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| 1514 | Hungarian Peasants Revolt: On this date, Cardinal Thomas Bakócz published a papal bull calling for a Hungarian crusade against the Turks. Dózsa, a Transylvanian nobleman. gathered an army of some 100,000 so-called Kurucs, consisting for the most part of peasants, wandering students, friars, and parish priests - some of the lowest-ranking groups of medieval society. After some initial success they were suppressed by the army and the leaders were tortured and killed.
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| 1856 | The Declaration of Paris abolishes privateering, defines the nature of contraband and blockade, and recognizes the principle of “free ships, free goods,” moves designed to facilitate free trade even in times of war. (The Encarta® 2000 New World Timeline © Copyright 1998, Helicon Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.)
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| 1861 | Lincoln starts military occupation of Maryland. The Maryland legislature bravely denounces the military occupation by passing a resolution to that effect.
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| 1878 | The U.S. Supreme Court in Reynolds v. United States decides that freedom of religion has its limits. In particular, the idea that polygamy is immoral is based on the Christian Bible! Basically the court said, you can have any belief you want but the state retains the option of determining if you can practice your belief!
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| 1902 | US landing in Colombia {pdf} to protect American interests at Bocas del Toro, April 16-23.
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| 1947 | Bernard Baruch coins the term "Cold War".
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| 1991 | A 6-to-3 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, McCLESKEY v. ZANT, places severe limitations on a state prisoner's right to raise constitutional claims in federal habeas corpus proceedings.
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| 2003 | Bush (R) signs $79 billion supplemental spending bill for Iraq occupation. Note that the Iraq war is "off the books"; not in the defense budget. Strange accounting. . .
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| 2007 | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University mass shooting. Seung-Hui Cho, 23, entered West Ambler Johnston dormitory, shot and killed two students, then returned to his dormitory to change out of his bloody clothes. At approximately 9:40 AM, he entered Norris Hall and began shooting at students and faculty in classrooms on the second floor. The rampage—during which 30 more people were killed and 17 wounded—lasted until approximately 9:51 AM, when Cho committed suicide.
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