On This Day: July 9, 1982 — Michael Fagan Breaks Into the Queen’s Bedroom
On July 9, 1982, Michael Fagan climbed into Buckingham Palace and walked into Queen Elizabeth II’s bedroom. Here’s the full story of the break-in that shocked Britain.
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On This Day: June 22, 1986 — Maradona’s Hand of God
On June 22, 1986, Diego Maradona scored the Hand of God goal — then the Goal of the Century — to knock England out of the World Cup.
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On This Day: June 18, 1983 — Sally Ride Becomes First American Woman in Space
On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride launched aboard Challenger STS-7 to become the first American woman in space — 22 years after the Soviet Union, after a press tour of indignities, and after years of mastering the shuttle’s robotic arm.
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On This Day: June 6, 1984 — Tetris Is Born in Moscow
On June 6, 1984, Soviet engineer Alexey Pajitnov finished Tetris on an Elektronika 60. The story of how it leaked out of Moscow and became gaming’s most-played game ever.
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On This Day: June 5, 1989 — Tank Man Stops Tiananmen
On June 5, 1989, an unknown man with shopping bags stopped a column of Type 59 tanks in Beijing. Inside the iconic Tank Man photograph, the four photographers who smuggled it out, and what happened to the man who refused to move.
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Larry King Live Debut: 7 Wild Facts From June 3, 1985
On June 3, 1985 — exactly five years to the day after CNN signed on — a former Miami radio host named Larry King sat down in a folding chair on Ted Turner’s struggling cable network and started talking to the governor of New York. There were no flashy graphics, no panel of pundits, no…
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On This Day: May 31, 1985 — The Only F5 to Hit PA
The May 31, 1985 tornado outbreak dropped 44 twisters, killed 90 people, and produced the only F5 ever recorded in Pennsylvania.
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On This Day: May 29, 1985 — Heysel Stadium Disaster
The Heysel Stadium disaster happened on May 29, 1985, an hour before the European Cup final between Liverpool and Juventus in Brussels, when a charge by Liverpool fans pushed Italian supporters against a crumbling concrete wall that buckled and collapsed, killing 39 people. Thirty-two of the dead were Italian. The youngest was 11 years old….
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On This Day: May 23, 1980 — The Shining Premieres
On May 23, 1980, Warner Bros. dropped The Shining into U.S. theaters and quietly rewired horror cinema for the next four decades. Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining 1980 release wasn’t an obvious blockbuster on opening weekend — critics shrugged, Stephen King fumed, and the Razzies even nominated it for Worst Director. Forty-five years later, it’s preserved…
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Pope John Paul II Assassination Attempt: 7 Shocking 1981 Facts
On May 13, 1981, a Turkish gunman shot Pope John Paul II in St. Peter’s Square. The bullet missed his heart by millimeters. Here are 7 shocking facts about that day.
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March 20, 1980: The Day Radio Caroline’s Mi Amigo Sank, Ending an Era of Pirate Radio
At 11:58 PM on March 19, 1980, a DJ named Stevie Gordon leaned into the microphone aboard a rusted Panamanian coaster called the Mi Amigo and told listeners across Britain that Radio Caroline was about to go off the air. Force-ten gales were already over the gunwales. The 134-foot mast that had beamed sixteen years…
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Lithuania Independence 1990: The Day That Broke the USSR
On March 11, 1990, Lithuania became the first Soviet republic to declare independence, starting the domino effect that would topple the entire communist empire within 18 months. This is the story of the small Baltic nation that dared to be first and changed the world.
