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1939
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1909
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more events on January 16
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1991
The Persian Gulf War begins. The massive U.S.-led offensive against Iraq — Operation Desert Storm — ends on February 28, 1991, when President George Bush declares a cease-fire, and Iraq pledges to honor future coalition and U.N. peace terms.
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1979
The Shah leaves Iran.
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1975
The Irish Republican Army calls an end to a 25-day cease fire in Belfast.
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1965
Eighteen are arrested in Mississippi for the murder of three civil rights workers.
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1956
The Egyptian government makes Islam the state religion.
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1945
The U.S. First and Third armies link up at Houffalize, effectively ending the Battle of the Bulge.
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1944
Eisenhower assumes supreme command of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe.
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1942
Japan’s advance into Burma begins.
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1940
Hitler cancels an attack in the West due to bad weather and the capture of German attack plans in Belgium.
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1939
Franklin D. Roosevelt asks for an extension of the Social Security Act to include more women and children.
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1933
Susan Sontag, American essayist and novelist (The Style of Radical Will, Illness as a Metaphor).
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1920
Allies lift the blockade on trade with Russia.
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The League of Nations holds its first meeting in Paris.
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1914
Maxim Gorky is authorized to return to Russia after an eight year exile for political dissidence.
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1909
Ethel Merman, U.S. singer and actress, the “Queen of Broadway.”