2007 |
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling, the long-awaited final chapter in the Harry Potter series, is released in hardcover.
(photo credit: Arthur A. Levine Books)
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| 2002 |
Academy award-winning composer Jerry Goldsmith dies of cancer at his Beverly Hills, California, home at age 75.
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| 2002 |
Telecommunications giant MCI Worldcom files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection -- the largest bankruptcy filing in US history.
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| 1999 |
The bodies of John F. Kennedy, Jr., his wife, Carolyn, and sister-in-law, Lauren Bessette, are located by Navy divers in a plane wreck off Martha's Vineyard.
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| 1998 |
Alan Shepard, the first American in space, dies in Monterey, California, at age 74. Shepard's career highlights included commander of the Apollo 14 lunar mission and the fifth person to walk on the moon.
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| 1998 |
Actor Robert Young (Marcus Welby, M.D.) dies in Westlake Village, California, at age 91.
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| 1969 |
Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin lift off from the lunar surface aboard the lunar module Eagle.
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| 1954 |
North Vietnam is surrendered to the Communists by France.
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| 1949 |
The North Atlantic Treaty is ratified by the US Senate.
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| 1948 |
Filmmaker D.W. Griffith dies of a cerebral hemorrhage in Hollywood, California, at age 73.
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| 1930 |
The US Veterans Administration is established.
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| 1925 |
The 'Monkey Trial' of John T. Scopes ends as Scopes is convicted of violating Tennessee law for teaching Darwin's Theory of Evolution. (The verdict was later overturned.)
Uncle Woody asks: "Could this be where the exclamation 'Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle!' came from?"
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| 1873 |
Jesse James and his gang of outlaws perform the first train robbery in America, netting $3,000 from a heist in Adair, Iowa.
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| 1861 |
Confederate troops hold tight against Union forces at the Battle of Bull Run during the American Civil War.
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