(1793) Clash of ideologies ends in a bathtub assassination
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As French revolutionary leader Jean-Paul Marat lays in his bath, Royalist sympathizer Charlotte Corday stabs him in the chest with a kitchen knife and kills him. The act will lead to her being guillotined, and also inspire the famous Jacques-Louis David painting, ‘The Death of Marat.’. |
(1863) US Civil War draft incites huge riots
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Racial tensions and class warfare mix into a deadly brew as a protest by working-class whites against newly enacted Civil War draft laws spiral out of control into a city-spanning riot. Some 120 die and thousands are injured, with New York City’s black population the target of racist violence. . |
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(1977) Blackout plunges New York City into chaos
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Lightning strikes upstate power lines, resulting in a cascade of electrical station failures that plunge New York City into darkness. For the next 25 hours, scores of people are trapped in elevators and subway trains, while looting, arson, and panic break out in the hot summer streets.. |
(1985) Multi-continent one-day charity concert kicks off
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An estimated 1.9 billion viewers in 150 countries tune in to Live Aid, a TV charity event of enormous scope featuring an array of rock and roll legends playing simultaneously in front of 100,000 in Philadelphia and 72,000 in London to raise money for African famine relief. . |
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