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Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter in a landslide on this day. Reagan would go on to be one of the most beloved conservative presidents in history and play a key role in ending the Cold War.
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The space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds into its flight on this day. All seven of the crew members onboard were killed. This was the first fatal American accident involving a spacecraft in flight.
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The Berlin Wall, which divided East and West Germany, fell. This marked the fall of the Iron Curtain.
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This was an armed campaign of the United States against Iraq in response to their invasion of Kuwait.
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The Soviet Union officially dissolved on this date. The result of an internal collapse, and proof of communisms failure, the USSR officially ended 74 years after it started.
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On this date, news broke of a scandal between President Bill Clinton and a white house intern Monica Lewinsky. He would go on to deny the affair under oath, and it would go on to force his impeachment.
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12 students and 1 teacher were murdered by teenage active shooters on this date. This sparked an international debate on gun control and bullying.
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There were four coordinated terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on this day. These were suicide attacks, and almost three thousand people were killed.