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more events on December 1
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2001
Trans World Airlines’ final flight following the carrier’s purchase by American Airlines; TWA began operating 76 years earlier. The final flight, 220, piloted by Capt. Bill Compton, landed at St. Louis International Airport.
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1991
Ukraine’s voters overwhelmingly approve a referendum for independence from the USSR.
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1990
Channel Tunnel sections from France and the UK meet beneath the English Channel.
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1989
East Germany’s parliament changes its constitution, abolishing a section that gave the Communist Party the leading role in the state.
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1988
Benazir Bhutto, politician, becomes the first woman to serve as Prime Minister of Pakistan and the first woman elected to lead a Muslim state
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1986
Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North pleads the 5th Amendment before a Senate panel investigating the Iran-Contra arms sale.
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1981
AIDS virus officially recognized.
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1971
Indian Army recaptures part of Kashmir, which had been occupied by Pakistan.
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1969
America’s first draft lottery since 1942 is held.
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1966
Andrew Adamson, New Zealand film director, producer, screenwriter (Shrek; The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe); he was made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2006.
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1958
Candace Bushnell, author (Sex and the City, The Carrie Diaries).
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1955
Rosa Parks refuses to sit in the back of a Montgomery, Alabama, bus, defying the South’s segregationist laws.
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1949
Pablo Escobar, Colombian drug lord whose Medellin Cartel killed thousands.
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1945
Bette Midler, singer, songwriter, actress, producer; her awards include 3 Grammys, 4 Golden Globes, 3 Emmys and a special Tony for her contribution to Broadway (1974).
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1942
National gasoline rationing goes into effect in the United States.