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The Spanish flu is mutated from a harmless garden-variety flu, killing 50 to 100 million people worldwide.
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Howard Carter found a hidden step in an anciet hut, leading him to find King Tutankhamun's Royal Burial Tomb.
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Alexander Fleming accidently spills a mold into one of his expirements, thereby creating penicillin.
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The Wall Street Stock Market crashes, starting the spiral down to the Great Depression in the United States.
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Giuseppe Zangara attempts to assassinate Franklin D. Roosevelt.
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King Edward VIII abdicates the throne after being forced to choose between royalty, and the woman he loves.
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The great airship, the Hindenburg, broke into flames. Within less than a minute, the whole ship was consumed with fire.
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The broadcasting of "The War of the Worlds" causes panic everywhere.
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The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, causing the United States to become involved with World War II.
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The great uncle-in-law of Alfred, Winston Churchill, gives his "Iron Curtain" (offically "The Sinews of Peace") speech, talking about how Europe is splitting into democratic and communist parties.
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At age 25, Princess Elizabeth becomes Queen of England after her father, King George VI died of lung cancer.
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Congress rules segregation illegal, however for many years following racism will still apply.
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The Soviet spaceship "Sputnik" is launched, becoming the start of the new age of space-travel.
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Soviet Yuri Gagarin becomes first man in space, after boarding and flying Vostok 1
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East Germany builds the Berlin Wall at midnight, trapping people on whatever side they slept on that night, for decades to come.
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The day before, US pilots spotted nuclear missiles being built in Cuba. For thirteen days afterwards, the United States and Soviet Russia were on the brink of nuclear war.
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At 12:30 p.m. CST, John F. Kennedy, the president of the United States, was assassinated.
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In response to the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, president Lyndon B. Johnson sends 3,500 troops to South Vietnam.
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American Neil Armstrong becomes the first man to ever step foot on the moon.
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North and South Vietnam, along with the United States, signs a peace treaty, stating that all hostilities would end.
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Alfred Kroymann's Grandchild
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With a vote of 99 for and zero against, Sandra Day O'Conner becomes the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court.
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In Chernobyl, Ukraine (under jurisdiction of the U.S.S.R), an explosion released large amounts of radiation into the atmosphere, causing panic all over Europe, and crippling Soviet Russia financially.
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East German official Günter Schabowski announces that the border to the West had opened.
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Due to the launch of the Hubble, scientists were able to catch gamma rays of when the universe first exploded into existence (the Big Bang), giving them the ability to date the universe.
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The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) formally dissolves, and breaks into seperate countries, the largest being now-known Russia.
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Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or more commonly known as Mad Cow Disease, was first spotted in Canada. Though a rare disease, that cannot directly effect humans, this was much cause for panic. Eating the beef of a cow with this disease could cause many nervous system-related side effects in humans.
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Two students. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, of Columbine High School in Colorado, enacted an all-out assult on their school. Bringing guns, bombs, and knives, they murdered 12 students and a teacher before they killed themselves. Because this was the first school shooting in the United States, this was cause for great panic.
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Because computers were programmed to assume the date started with "19" as in "1990", many people thought that once the year changed to "2000", it would cause mass confusion in computers, shutting them all down. Computers were a large part of human life, so many people had reason to believe it woud be the end of civilization as they knew it.
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Al-Qaeda hijacks two American planes, and crashes them into the World Trade Center, killing thousands. America, in response, creates the Department of Homeland Security, and ups the security of TSA.
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After 49 years in power, Fidel Castro willingly steps down as president of Cuba.
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Swine Flu, later named H1N1, spreads from its most likely known epicenter, Mexico. By April 26, 109 were dead. Just three days later, the number had risen to more than 150 known cases.
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The most violent earthquake being around 10-Magnitude, this 7.6-Magnitude earthquake caused destruction everywhere. It was the biggest recorded earthquake in this region for 200 years.
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More devastating than Haiti's, a very violent earthquake hits Chile, destroying nearly everything. Because Haiti's 7.6 earthquake was the largest in 200 years, and this, much larger one came just a month afterward, many people began to think it might be the end of the world.
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While drilling for oil, incompetent workers ignored warning signs from machines, resulting in a large oil explosion. For 86 days afterwards, oil gushed out of the rig, spilling millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
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A nuclear meltdown happened in Japan, causing water and food contamination everywhere.
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After years of hiding, Osama Bin Laden (leader of Al-Qaeda) was killed when U.S. marines found him in a compound in Pakistan.
