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On this day in 1400, Richard II dies, most likely from starvation, in Pontefract Castle, on the orders of Henry Bolingbroke. Ah, the English... so staid, conservative and civilized!
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On this day in 1779, sailor James Cook is killed by Native Hawaiians near Kealakekua on the Island of Hawaii.
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On this day in 1831, Ras Marye of Yejju marches into Tigray and defeats and kills Dejazmach Sabagadis in the Battle of Debre Abbay... and if you have any idea what any of that meant, kindly email me and let me know, because I haven't got the foggiest.
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On this day in 1924, the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company changes its name to International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). Chaos ensues.
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On this day in 1929, the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre takes place. Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone's gang, are murdered in Chicago, Illinois.
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On this day in 1949, the Asbestos Strike begins in Canada. The strike marks the beginning of the Quiet Revolution in Quebec.
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On this day in 1957, the Georgia Senate unanimously approves Senator Leon Butts' bill barring blacks from playing baseball with whites, otherwise known as the Locker Room Shock Prevention Bill.
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On this day in 1962, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy takes television viewers on a tour of the White House.
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On this day in 1971, President Richard Nixon has a secret audio-taping system installed in the Oval Office. This works out very well for him in the long term.
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On this day in 1989, Union Carbide agrees to pay $470 million to the Indian government for damages it caused in the 1984 Bhopal disaster.
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On this day in 1989, Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini puts a multi-million dollar bounty on Salman Rushdie's head because his novel The Satanic Verses - in which Mohammed (PBUH) plays tricks on the archangel Gabriel - is blasphemous. Today, Khomeini is dead and Rushdie still walks among us. HA-ha!
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On this day in 2005, Youtube is launched by a group of college students, eventually becoming the largest video sharing website in the world and a main source for viral videos.
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