1986: Explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.
On this day in 1986, the U.S. space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after its liftoff from Florida, killing all seven aboard, including a schoolteacher who was the first private citizen to fly on a shuttle.
| 1915: | | Congress created the U.S. Coast Guard by combining the Revenue Cutter Service with the U.S. Lifesaving Service. |
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| 1912: | | American painter Jackson Pollock, a leading exponent of Abstract Expressionism who received widespread publicity and serious recognition for the radical poured, or “drip,” technique he used to create his major works, was born. |
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| 1881: | | Russian novelist and short-story writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky died in St. Petersburg. |
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| 1873: | | | French writer Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette was born in Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye. |
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| 1871: | | The French capital, Paris, fell following a four-month siege during the Franco-German War. |
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| 1457: | | | King Henry VII of England, who succeeded in ending the Wars of the Roses, was born in Pembrokeshire, Wales. |
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| 814: | | | Charlemagne, ruler of the Holy Roman Empire, died at Aachen (Germany). |
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