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• In 1933, banks in the U.S. began to reopen after a "holiday" declared by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
• In 1934, a gang that included John Dillinger and "Baby Face" Nelson robbed the First National Bank in Mason City, Iowa, making off with $52,344.
• In 1947, the Lerner and Loewe musical "Brigadoon," about a Scottish village which magically reappears once every hundred years, opened on Broadway.
• In 1954, the Battle of Dien Bien Phu began during the First Indochina War as communist forces attacked French troops, who were defeated nearly two months later.
• In 1969, the Apollo 9 astronauts splashed down, ending a mission that included the successful testing of the Lunar Module.
• In 1980, Ford Motor Chairman Henry Ford II announced he was stepping down, the same day a jury in Winamac, Ind., found the company not guilty of reckless homicide in the fiery deaths of three young women in a Ford Pinto.
• In 1996, a gunman burst into an elementary school in Dunblane, Scotland, and opened fire, killing 16 children and one teacher before killing himself.
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• Ten years ago: Iran froze inspections of its nuclear facilities after the U.N. atomic agency censured Tehran for hiding suspect activities. (Iranian officials relented two days later.) Luciano Pavarotti performed his final opera, receiving a 15-minute standing ovation following the conclusion of Puccini's "Tosca" at New York's Metropolitan Opera House. (Pavarotti went on to do a series of concerts as part of a farewell tour; he died in Sept. 2007.)
• Five years ago: President Barack Obama met with former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, chairman of his Economic Recovery Advisory Board; the president then went before reporters to say his administration was working to create a "post-bubble" model for solid economic growth once the recession ended. Death claimed soprano Anne Wiggins Brown, the original Bess in George Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess," at age 96; actress Betsy Blair at age 85; and Detroit Pistons' Hall of Fame owner Bill Davidson at age 86. The Philadelphia 76ers played a final game at the Spectrum, their old home, beating Chicago 104-101.
• One year ago: Jorge Bergoglio (HOHR'-hay behr-GOHG'-lee-oh) of Argentina was elected pope, choosing the name Francis; he became the first pontiff from the Americas and the first from outside Europe in more than a millennium.
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• Today's Birthdays: Jazz musician Roy Haynes is 89. Country singer Jan Howard is 84. Songwriter Mike Stoller (STOH'-ler) is 81. Singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka

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