| Year | Event
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| 1862 | Sioux Indians, facing starvation, begin an uprising in Minnesota, with hundreds of lives lost. After a hasty military trial, 303 Indians were selected for hanging. President Lincoln pardoned all but 38. On December 26, these 38 Indians (more or less, a few mistakes were made) are hanged for this act, by order of President Lincoln, the largest mass execution in American history.
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| 1937 | Congress passes the Miller-Tydings Act which allows manufacturers to fix resale prices of brand-name merchandise. [Yeah, I know this seems to be in violation of the Sherman Act and the Bill of Rights, but we must keep the lawyers employed.]
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| 1945 | Korea is divided at the 38th parallel, and the U.S. occupies the southern portion.
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| 1982 | U.S. and the Peoples Republic of China sign "U.S.-PRC JOINT COMMUNIQUE", in which the U.S. agrees that it "recognized the Government of the People's Republic of China as the sole legal government of China, and it acknowledged the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China" but that the U.S. will continue to sell weapons to Taiwan. China gets another lesson in U.S. doubletalk. [Yes, Republican Reagan was the president.]
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| 1992 | Federal Marshalls start siege of "Ruby Ridge" resulting in several deaths and great expense to the taxpayers -- trying to bring to justice Randy Weaver accused of having a sawed-off shotgun. Related events here.
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| 2007 | Today's Example of a Most Interesting Government Purchase: Menlo Worldwide Government Services, LLC, San Mateo, Calif., is being awarded a fixed-price/cost-reimbursement contract for a base period face value of $525,076,256. The contract has a total estimated contract value of $1.625 Billion!! They are to perform transportation coordination services in a manner that will improve the reliability, predictability, and efficiency of Department of Defense materiel moving within the Continental United States.
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