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agreed to buy some 45,000 square miles of land from Mexico for $10 million in a deal known as the Gadsden Purchase.
• In 1860, 10 days after South Carolina seceded from the Union, the state militia seized the United States Arsenal in Charleston.
• In 1903, about 600 people died when fire broke out at the recently opened Iroquois Theater in Chicago.
• In 1922, Vladimir I. Lenin proclaimed the establishment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
• In 1936, the United Auto Workers union staged its first "sit-down" strike at the General Motors Fisher Body Plant No. 1 in Flint, Mich. (The strike lasted until Feb. 11, 1937.)
• In 1940, California's first freeway, the Arroyo Seco Parkway connecting Los Angeles and Pasadena, was officially opened by Gov. Culbert L. Olson.
• In 1948, the Cole Porter musical "Kiss Me, Kate" opened on Broadway.
• In 1965, Ferdinand Marcos was inaugurated for his first term as president of the Philippines.
• In 1972, the United States halted its heavy bombing of North Vietnam.
• In 1993, Israel and the Vatican agreed to recognize each other. Hollywood agent Irving "Swifty" Lazar died in Beverly Hills, Calif. at age 86.
• In 1994, a gunman walked into a pair of suburban Boston abortion clinics and opened fire, killing two employees. (John C. Salvi III was later convicted of murder; he died in prison, an apparent suicide.)
• In 2006, Iraqis awoke to news that Saddam Hussein had been hanged; victims of his three decades of autocratic rule took to the streets to celebrate.
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• Ten years ago: The Bush administration announced it was banning the sale of ephedra, and urged consumers to immediately stop using the herbal stimulant linked to 155 deaths and dozens of heart attacks and strokes. Author John Gregory Dunne died in New York City at age 71.
• Five years ago: A defiant Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (blah-GOY'-uh-vich) named former state Attorney General Roland Burris to Barack Obama's Senate seat, a surprise move that put the governor's opponents in the uncomfortable position of trying to block his choice from becoming the Senate's only black member. (Burris was sworn in as a U.S. senator the following month.) Israeli aircraft kept up a relentless string of attacks on Hamas-ruled Gaza, smashing a government complex, security installations and the home of a top militant commander. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a law extending presidential terms from four years to six.

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