1692: The last person is hanged for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts.
1735: Robert Walpole becomes the first British PM to live at 10 Downing Street.
1792: The French Republic is proclaimed.
1862: President Lincoln announces at a cabinet meeting that he intends to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all slaves in rebel states should be free as of January 1, 1863.
1893: Bicycle makers Charles and Frank Duryea show off the first American automobile produced for sale to the public by taking it on a maiden run through the streets of Springfield, Massachusetts.
1903: Italo Marchioni applies for a patent for pastry cornets to hold ice cream and is granted the patent on December 13, 1903. Ice cream cones are popularized in the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.
1908: Bulgaria declares independence from the Ottoman Empire (Turkey).
1945: President Truman accepts U.S. Secretary of War Stimson's recommendation to designate the war World War II.
1947: A Douglas C-54 Skymaster makes the first automatic-pilot flight over the Atlantic.
1955: Commercial TV begins in England. ITV begins broadcasting at 7:15 pm in the London region
1959: The first telephone cable linking Europe and the United States is inaugurated.
1972: Dictator Idi Amin throws some 8,000 Asians out of Uganda. Deprived of its business class the nation soon plummets into economic chaos
1980: John Lennon signs with Geffen Records. The Lennon LP, "Double Fantasy", is released on Geffen
1985: Rock and country music artists participate in FarmAid, a concert staged in Illinois to help the nation's farmers.
1991: University of California makes the Dead Sea Scrolls public.
1995: Time Warner strikes a $7.5 billion deal to buy Turner Broadcasting System Incorporated.
1997: Elton John releases his Diana tribute "Candle in the Wind 1997."
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