The Statue of Liberty, a gift from the people of France to the people of the United States on the occasion of America's 100th anniversary in 1876, was officially dedicated this day in 1886 by U.S. President Grover Cleveland.
| 1971: | | Great Britain launched Prospero, the first of four X-3 satellites. |
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| 1965: | | The Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri, designed by Finnish-born American architect Eero Saarinen to commemorate St. Louis's historic role as “Gateway to the West,” was completed. |
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| 1962: | | | Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev capitulated to U.S. demands to halt delivery of nuclear-armed missiles to Cuba, bringing an end to the Cuban missile crisis. |
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| 1919: | | The U.S. Congress overrode President Woodrow Wilson's veto and passed the Volstead Act, providing enforcement guidelines for Prohibition. |
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| 1918: | | Tomá? Masaryk, Edvard Bene?, and other leaders issued a proclamation announcing the formation of an independent Czechoslovakian state. |
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| 1914: | | | American physician and medical researcher Jonas Edward Salk, who developed the first safe and effective vaccine for polio, was born. |
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| 1790: | | Spain, yielding to British demands, signed the convention that resolved the Nootka Sound controversy. |
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| 1636: | | Harvard University, the oldest institute of higher learning in the United States, was founded by the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. |
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