On this day in 1955, American fast-food pioneer Ray Kroc opened the first McDonald's franchise in Des Plaines, Illinois, launching an enterprise that would eventually become the world's largest fast-food chain.
| 2003: | | U.S. President George W. Bush declared that the government of ?add─m ?ussein in Iraq had fallen as a result of the Second Persian Gulf War and the following day asked the United Nations to lift sanctions against Iraq. |
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| 2000: | | | U.S. President Bill Clinton established the Giant Sequoia National Monument, a preserve near Sequoia National Park covering more than 500 square miles (1,300 square km) of Sequoia National Forest in the Sierra Nevada of California. |
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| 1947: | | | Jackie Robinson, who broke baseball's racial barrier, played in his first major league game for the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field. |
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| 1926: | | Robertson Aircraft, one of the companies that later developed into American Airlines, flew its first mail route, between Chicago and St. Louis, Missouri, with Charles A. Lindbergh as the pilot. |
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| 1920: | | | Two men were murdered in South Braintree, Massachusetts, leading to the Sacco-Vanzetti case and the still-controversial conviction of the two Italian immigrants. |
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| 1912: | | | The British luxury passenger liner Titanic sank en route to New York City from Southampton, Hampshire, England, during its maiden voyage. |
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