more events on December 17
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2010
Mohamed Bouazizi immolates himself, the catalyst for the Tunisian revolution and the subsequent Arab Spring.
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2007
James, Viscount Severn, son of Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, and Sophie, Countess of Wessex; youngest grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
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2002
Congolese parties of the inter Congolese Dialogue sign a peace accord in the Second Congo War, providing for transitional government and elections within two years.
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1990
Jean-Bertrand Aristide wins Haiti’s first free election.
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1989
Fernando Color de Mello becomes Brazil’s first democratically elected president in nearly 30 years.
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The Simpsons, television’s longest-running animated series, makes its US debut.
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1981
Red Brigade terrorists kidnap Brigadier General James Dozier, the highest-ranking U.S. NATO officer in Italy.
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1965
Ending an election campaign marked by bitterness and violence, Ferdinand Marcos is declared president of the Philippines.
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1962
Richard Jewell, police officer who discovered pipe bombs on the grounds of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, and helped evacuate the area before the bombs exploded.
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1952
Yugoslavia breaks relations with the Vatican.
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1950
The French government appoints Marshal de Lattre de Tassigny to command their troops in Vietnam.
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1948
The Smithsonian Institution accepts the Kitty Hawk – the Wright brothers’ plane.
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1945
Chris Matthews, news anchor, political commentator; host of Hardball with Chris Matthews on MSNBC.
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1944
U.S. approves end to internment of Japanese Americans. U.S. Major General Henry C. Pratt issues Public Proclamation No. 21, declaring that Japanese American “evacuees” from the West Coast could return to their homes effective January 2, 1945.
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The German Army renews the attack on the Belgian town of Losheimergraben against the defending Americans during the Battle of the Bulge.
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1939
In the Battle of River Plate near Montevideo, Uruguay, the British trap the German pocket battleship Graf Spee. German Captain Langsdorf sinks his ship believing that resistance is hopeless.
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1938
Italy declares the 1935 pact with France invalid because ratifications had not been exchanged. France denies the argument.
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1937
US Lt. Gen. Calvin Waller, deputy commander-in-chief for military operations with US Central Command (Forward) during the First Gulf War.
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Kerry Packer, Australian businessman who founded World Series Cricket.
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Art Neville, singer, musician; member of The Neville Brothers and The Meters.
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1936
Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina), named to the Papacy March 13, 2013.
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1935
George Lindsey, comic actor best known for his role as Goober on The Andy Griffith Show.
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1930
Bob Guccione, publisher; founder of Penthouse magazine.
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1929
William Safire, journalist and author.
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1908
Willard Frank Libby, American chemist who won a Nobel Prize for his part in creating the carbon-14 method in dating ancient findings.
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1903
Near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright make the first successful flight in history of a self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft.
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1886
At a Christmas party, Sam Starr (husband to infamous outlaw queen Belle Starr) shoots his old enemy Frank West, but is fatally wounded himself.
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1861
The Stonewall Brigade begins to dismantle Dam No. 5 of the C&O Canal.
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1807
John Greenleaf Whittier, American poet, abolitionist, reformer and founder of the Liberal Party.
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1778
Humphrey Davy, English chemist who discovered the anesthetic effect of laughing gas.
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1398
Tamerlane’s Mongols destroy the army of Mahmud Tughluk, Sultan of Delhi, at Panipat.