| On this date in: |
| 1812 |
Author Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth, England. |
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| AP Photo |
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| 1944 |
Germany launched a counteroffensive at Anzio, Italy, during World War II. |
| 1962 |
President John F. Kennedy imposed a full trade embargo on Cuba.. |
| 1974 |
The island nation of Grenada won independence from Britain. |
| 1984 |
Space shuttle astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart went on the first untethered space walk. |
| 1986 |
Haitian President-for-Life Jean-Claude Duvalier fled his country, ending 28 years of family rule. |
| 1990 |
The Soviet Union’s Communist Party gave up its monopoly on power by agreeing to let other political parties compete for control of the country. |
| 1991 |
Jean-Bertrand Aristide was sworn in as Haiti’s first democratically elected president. |
| 1992 |
European Community members signed the Maastricht Treaty, which led to creation of the euro. |
| 1995 |
Ramzi Yousef, the alleged mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was arrested in Islamabad, Pakistan. |
| 1999 |
Jordan’s King Hussein died at age 63. |
| 2011 |
AOL Inc. announced the $315 million purchase of The Huffington Post website. |
| 2012 |
A federal appeals court ruled California’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. |
