Pierre Elliott Trudeau of the Liberal Party, who became prime minister of Canada this day in 1968, discouraged the French separatist movement, oversaw the formation of a new constitution, and established relations with China.
| 1999: | | Two disgruntled and heavily armed students entered Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, and murdered 13 people before killing themselves. |
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| 1924: | | | Finalizing the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey's Grand National Assembly voted to adopt a full republican constitution, with General Mustafa Kemal, who had first proclaimed the Turkish republic about six months earlier, becoming the first president of the republic. |
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| 1920: | | U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens was born in Chicago. |
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| 1919: | | In an ongoing dispute over the possession of Vilnius, Polish forces drove out Russia's Red Army—which had previously ousted the newly established Lithuanian government—and occupied the city. |
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| 1871: | | Japan's first government-operated postal service opened between Tokyo and ┃saka. |
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| 1840: | | | French Symbolist painter Odilon Redon was born in Bordeaux. |
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| 1808: | | | Napoleon III, president of the Second Republic (1850–52) and emperor of France (1852–70), was born in Paris. |
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| 1653: | | | England's Rump Parliament was dissolved by Oliver Cromwell and later replaced by the nominated Barebones Parliament, which was dissolved in the same year, leading to the declaration of the Protectorate. |
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