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1799
George Washington died at age 67.
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1819
Alabama became the 22nd state in the United States.
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1911
Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen became the first man to reach the South Pole, beating an expedition led by Robert F. Scott.
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1939
The Soviet Union was dropped from the League of Nations.
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1981
Israel formally annexed the Golan Heights.
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1985
Wilma Mankiller became the first woman to lead a major American Indian tribe as she took office as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.
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1989
Nobel Peace laureate Andrei D. Sakharov died in Moscow at age 68.
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2012
In 2012, Adam Lanza, age 20, killed 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown, Connecticut. The victims included 20 children between the ages of 6 and 7. Lanza killed himself while still inside the school.