Announced on this day in 1998 was the discovery in the Hui Autonomous Region of Ningxia of a previously unknown 15.5-mile (25-km) segment of the Great Wall of China, which runs in toto about 4,500 miles (7,300 km).
| 1978: | | | Dominica achieved full independence, with Patrick Roland John as its first prime minister. |
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| 1957: | | The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2, which carried the dog Laika, the first living creature to be shot into space and orbit the Earth. |
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| 1916: | | | Playwright Eugene O'Neill made his New York City debut with the one-act play Bound East for Cardiff. |
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| 1903: | | Influenced by Philippe-Jean Bunau-Varilla and U.S. interests, a revolutionary junta proclaimed Panamanian independence from Colombia. |
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| 1793: | | | Stephen Austin, founder of the principal settlements of English-speaking people in Texas in the 1820s, when that territory was still part of Mexico, was born. |
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| 1295: | | Ma?m┗d Gh─z─n, the most prominent of the Il-Khans (a Mongol dynasty) to rule Iran, was formally enthroned. |
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