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January
18th |
British actor, Cary Grant, was born in Bristol, England. He was one of the most celebrated and famous actors of 20th century cinema and one who set the standards by which a whole generation of actors was judged with. |
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February
7th |
A huge fire in the American city of Baltimore destroyed more than 1,500 buildings. |
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March
26th |
Economist, Xenophon Zolotas, was born in Athens. He served as Prime Minister of Greece during an interim government in 1989, when no political party was able to achieve a majority in parliament. |
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April
19th |
A huge fire destroyed a large part of the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. |
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April
22nd |
American physicist, Robert Oppenheimer, was born in New York City. He was a theoretical physicist who was the director of the Manhattan Project and the development of the first nuclear weapons, during the Second World War. He later assumed Albert Einstein's old position of senior professor of theoretical physics in Princeton University. |
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May
4th |
Construction of the Panama Canal begins. It was constructed by the United States, although work on the canal had been undertaken almost 25 years before that by the French. The French attempt was abandoned due to death among the workers from disease. Over 20000 workers died during the French attempt and approximately 5000 during the American phase. |
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May
11th |
Spanish painter, Salvador Dali, was born in Catalonia, Spain. He is universally accepted one of the most important painters of the 20th century. He was heavily criticized as being a supporter of General Franco's fascist regime. |
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July
12th |
Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda, was born in Parral. He was the winner of the 1971 Nobel Prize for literature and is considered as one of the greatest poets of all time. He was a left leaning ideologist and strong admirer of Russia's Joseph Stalin. |
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August
21st |
American musician, William 'Count' Basie, was born in Red Bank, New Jersey. He is widely regarded as one of the most important jazz bandleaders of his time. |
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August
22nd |
Chinese politician, Deng Xiaoping, was born in the village of Xixian in Paifang. He was the de facto leader of the People's Republic of China from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. |
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August
23th |
The snow chain, for car tyres, was patented. |
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December
27th |
The play, Peter pan, by James Barrie's premiered in London. |
