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| 1686 | - | Robinson Crusoe leaves his island after 28 years (as per Defoe) |
| 1732 | - | "Benjamin Frankin begins publication of \""Poor Richard\s Almanack\""" |
| 1741 | - | Vitus Bering Dutch navigator & explorer died |
| 1776 | - | Thomas Paine publishes his 1st `American Crisis\ essay |
| 1777 | - | Washington settles his troops at Valley Forge Pa for the winter |
| 1842 | - | US recognized independence of Hawaii |
| 1843 | - | Charles Dickens publishes `A Christmas Carol \ in England |
| 1859 | - | Grading started for Market Street RR |
| 1861 | - | Battle of Black Water |
| 1889 | - | Bishop Museum founded in Hawaii |
| 1907 | - | 239 workers died in a coal mine explosion in Jacobs Creek Penn |
| 1932 | - | British Broadcasting Corp. began transmitting overseas |
| 1933 | - | Electric Home & Farm Authority Inc authorized |
| 1946 | - | War broke out in Indochina as Ho Chi Minh attacked French |
| 1950 | - | Gen. Eisenhower named NATO commander |
| 1957 | - | The Music Man starring Robert Preston opens on Broadway |
| 1962 | - | Street signs in Golden Gate Park approved by Park Commission |
| 1971 | - | NASA launches Intelsat 4 F-3 for COMSAT Corp |
| 1972 | - | Apollo 17 returns to Earth |
| 1974 | - | Nelson A. Rockefeller was sworn in as the 41st VP |
| 1977 | - | Nellie Tayloe Ross 1st woman governor dies at 101 |
| 1984 | - | Fire at the Wilberg Mine in central Utah killed 27 people |
| 1986 | - | USSR frees dissident Andrei Sakharov from internal exile |
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