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1949
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1952
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more events on October 7
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2003
California voters remove Democratic governor Gray Davis from office in the state’s first successful recall of a sitting governor (only the second successful recall of a governor in US history); a Republican candidate, bodybuilder/actor Arnold Schwarzenegger wins the election to replace Davis 17 days later.
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2001
US invasion of Afghanistan in reaction to the terrorist attacks of 9/11 begins; it will become the longest war in US history.
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1996
Fox News Channel begins broadcasting.
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1993
The Great Flood of 1993 on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers ends, the worst US flood since 1927.
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1985
Four Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) hijackers seize the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro and demand the release of 50 Palestinians held by Israel.
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1976
Hua Guofeng, premier of the People’s Republic of China, succeeds the late Mao Zedong as chairman of the Communist Party of China.
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1957
A fire in the Windscale plutonium production reactor (later called Sellafield) north of Liverpool, England, spreads radioactive iodine and polonium through the countryside and into the Irish Sea. Livestock in the immediate area were destroyed, along with 500,000 gallons of milk. At least 30, and possibly as many as 1,000, cancer deaths were subsequently linked to the accident.
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1955
Yo Yo Ma, cellist.
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1952
Vladimir Putin, former prime minister and current (2013) president of Russia.
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1949
East Germany, the German Democratic Republic, is formed.
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Iva Toguri D’Aquino, better known as Tokyo Rose, is sentenced to 10 years in prison for treason.
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1944
Prisoner uprising at Birkenau concentration camp.
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1935
Thomas Keneally, novelist, author of Schindler’s Ark, the basis for the film Schindler’s List.
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1934
Leroi Jones (Imamu Amiri Baraka), playwright.
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1931
Desmond Tutu, South African religious leader.