On this day in 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court effectively awarded the presidency to George W. Bush, ruling that a fair recount of ballots in Florida could not be performed by the deadline for certifying the state's electors.
| 1964: | | | Kenya became a republic on the first anniversary of its independence from Britain. |
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| 1936: | | | Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek was seized by one of his own generals, Chang Hsüeh-liang, beginning the Sian Incident. |
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| 1915: | | | Popular American singer Frank Sinatra, who also achieved wide success as a motion-picture actor, was born in Hoboken, New Jersey. |
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| 1846: | | New Granada (now Colombia and Panama) signed the Bidlack Treaty with the United States, granting U.S. right-of-way across the Isthmus of Panama in exchange for a guarantee of neutrality for the isthmus and the sovereignty of New Granada. |
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