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Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space, making a 108 minute orbital flight in his first spacecraft when he became both the first person in the world to enter space and the first person to orbit the Earth.
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The Berlin Wall was both the physical division between West Berlin and East Germany and the symbolic boundary between democracy and Communism during the Cold War.
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On February 20, 1962, NASA launched one of the most important flights in American history which was to send a man to orbit Earth, observe his reactions and return him home safely. His name was John Glenn.
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John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy, also known as JFK, was the 35th President of the United States. He served from 1961 until his death in 1963. President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on November 22.Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was never sent to trial. While being moved by police to a different jail, a man named Jack Ruby shot Oswald.
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On June 12, 1964, Nelson Mandela received a life sentence for committing sabotage against South Africa’s apartheid government, avoiding a possible death sentence.
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On this day, Martin Luther King led thousands of non-violent African American demonstraters through the steps of the capitol in Montgomery, Alabama, after a 5-day, 54-mile march from Selma, Alabama. This was when Martin Luther King Jr, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) had been campaigning for voting rights.
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In 1963, Australia propsed of changing to decimal currency. There were at least 1000 submissions of this new currency unit. The Prime Minister "Sir Robert Menzies" proposed the "Royal". The dollar was eventually its name and its decimal currency was introduced on the 14th of February 1966.
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Harold Holt went for a swim at Cheviot Beach in Melbourne. Althought the waves were rough, he still went in for a swim. At first his friends could still see him but later, he was nowhere to be seen, and was gone.
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At 6:01 p.m. on April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was hit by a sniper's bullet. King had been standing on the balcony in front of his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, when, without warning, he was shot.
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On July 20, 1969, as part of the Apollo 11 mission, astronaut Neil Armstrong opened the hatch of the lunar module and stepped out onto the ladder. Once at the bottom of the ladder, Armstrong stepped onto the surface of the moon and became the very first man on the moon.