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more events on December 22
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2010
US President Barack Obama signs a law officially repealing the 17-year-old policy known as “Don’t ask, don’t tell”; the new law permits homosexuals to serve openly in the US military.
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2008
Some 1.1 billion gallons of coal fly ash slurry flood part of Tennessee after an ash dike breaks at a solid waste containment area in Roane County, in the eastern part of the state.
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2001
A passenger on American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris, Richard Reid, unsuccessfully attempts to destroy the plane in flight by igniting explosives he’d hidden in his shoes.
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President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, takes over an interim government.
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1997
Hussein Farrah Aidid relinquishes his disputed title of President of Somalia, an important step toward reconciliation in the country.
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1992
What became known as the Archives of Terror are discovered in a police station near the capital of Paraguay. The records detail tens of thousands of Latin Americans who had been secretly imprisoned, tortured and / or killed by the security services of several South American governments.
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1989
The division of East and West Germany effectively ends when the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin reopens for the first time in nearly 30 years.
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The Romanian government of Nicolae Ceausescu is overthrown, ending 42 years of communist rule.
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1966
The United States announces the allocation of 900,000 tons of grain to fight the famine in India.
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1965
The EF-105F Wild Weasel makes its first kill over Vietnam.
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1951
Major-General Gerald Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster, owner of the property company Grosvenor Group.
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Charles de Lint, author; helped popularize the urban fantasy genre; received World Fantasy Award (2000) for the collection Moonlight and Vines.
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1949
Robin and Maurice Gibb, singers, songwriters; co-founders of the Bee Gees band.
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1946
Rick Nielsen, musician, vocalist, primary songwriter of the band Cheap Trick.
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1945
Diane Sawyer, journalist; anchor of ABC World News.