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The Mt. St. Helens volcano in Washington State erupts, killing 57 people and causing $3 billion in economic damage to the area. -
With a rate of 10.4 percent, this was the highest unemployment rate since 1940. About eleven million people would be unemployed by the end of November. -
At Beirut International Airport, two hundred and forty-one US peacekeeping troops are killed by a terrorist truck bomb. A second bomb detonated two miles away, destroying French barracks and killing forty people. -
Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan hold a five-hour summit meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, for the first time in six years between the leaders of the Soviet Union and the United States. -
Martin Luther King Day is declared a federal holiday in the United States for the first time. -
The Exxon Valdez makes contact with Bligh Reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound, resulting in the largest oil spill in American history, with eleven million gallons spilled over a 45-mile radius. -
The Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee loses its monopoly on power, continuing the pattern that began with the fall of the Berlin Wall, signaling the end of the Cold War. A proposal to reunite Germany was revealed six days later. -
When a van parked under the North Tower of the World Trade Center by Islamic terrorists explodes. Six people were killed, and over a thousand others were wounded. -
One hundred and seventy nations decide to extend the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty indefinitely. -
In a televised interview, US President Bill Clinton denies his involvement with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, igniting the Monica Lewinsky controversy. This refusal, along with others to a grand jury investigation, led to the president's impeachment. -
"I Want it That Way" was listed at the top of many lists, including that of the band's best songs. It is said to be the best song Backstreet Boys ever released and is still a worldwide hit. -
Terrorists from the Islamic State hijack four American planes and fly them into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center in New York City. Two planes strike the World Trade Center, destroying it, and one plane crashes into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, killing almost 3,000 people. As passengers learned of the plot, they heroically crash the fourth plane into a cornfield in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, preventing the destruction of another structure.