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The illegal dumping of toxic waste at Love Canal, located in upstate New York, helped spur an environmental movement in the United States in the 1980s. Despite protests by President Ronald Reagan, Congress passed legislation that doubled Superfund allocations that went toward cleaning up toxic waste disposal.
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In 1966, New York City's Metropolitan Opera moved from its longtime home in Lower Manhattan to the new Lincoln Center on the Upper West Side. Lincoln Center, which was spearheaded by city building commissioner Robert Moses, represented one of the city's major projects of urban renewal during the 1960s.
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In 1951, General Douglas MacArthur was relieved of his post as commander of the Allied Forces in Japan after he publicly challenged orders from President Truman. The discharge had little effect on MacArthur's popularity, who was known as a talented military strategist and a popular leader among the Allied armed forces. After the war, MacArthur toured to numerous U.S. cities, where he was often received as a military hero.
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The seizing of 66 American hostages by Iranian protestors led to a national crisis in the United States. Many Americans viewed the crisis as an indicator of the nation's decline in the 1970s, and they began to lose trust in President Jimmy Carter's abilities to lead the country.
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The Hollywood Foreign Press Association first held the annual formal awards dinner in 1944, bestowing honors on television and film stars. During the 1950s, color films became the standard rather than the exception, and in 1958 the Golden Globe Awards ceremony was televised for the first time.
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Manfred von Richthofen was a Prussian cavalry officer at the outbreak of World War I. Frustrated with the dull, deadly grind of trench warfare, he transferred to the German Imperial Air Service. Between 1916 and 1918, Richthofen amassed 80 combat victories. Known as the "Red Baron" because he flew red planes in combat, Richthofen became such a national symbol that German authorities worried that his death would lower morale. He was finally shot down...
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The Russian Revolution of 1905 stemmed from a deep-seated dissatisfaction with the oppressive regimes of the Romanov czars, who had little regard for Russian workers and peasants. On January 22, 1905, hundreds of peasants protested at Czar Nicholas II's winter palace. Guards fired into the crowd, killing 70 people and wounding more than 300. The "Bloody Sunday" massacre sparked a wide-scale rebellion in which 15,000 workers were killed. Although the...
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By the early 1900s, Chicago had established itself as the center of the American meatpacking industry. Technological innovations, the establishment of national railroad systems, and the nation's increasing population combined to create demand for thousands of jobs in the stockyards.
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In 1894, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) published its first food guide, with the aim of preventing nutritional deficiencies in children. As the 20th century progressed, advances in agriculture meant that farmers were able to produce more food, and on the whole, Americans were better-nourished than they had ever been. By the 1960s and 1970s, however, the rise in heart disease made it clear that Americans might be eating too much, and the...
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During World War II, women entered the workforce in record numbers, but after the war ended they were expected to return to the home. Innovations in technology during the 1940s and 1950s, such as the electric washing machine, combined with a popular culture that also idealized the nuclear family (reflected in the television shows Father Knows Best and Leave it to Beaver) contributed to the image of woman-as-happy-homemaker.