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Florida Panhandle.
• In 1986, University of Maryland basketball star Len Bias, the first draft pick of the Boston Celtics, suffered a fatal cocaine-induced seizure. Artificial heart recipient Murray P. Haydon died in Louisville, Kentucky, after 16 months on the manmade pump.
• In 1999, author Stephen King was seriously injured when he was struck by a van driven by Bryan Smith in North Lovell, Maine. Britain's Prince Edward married commoner Sophie Rhys-Jones (rees johnz) in Windsor, England.
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• Ten years ago: The U.S. military stepped up its campaign against militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (AH'-boo MOO'-sahb ahl-zahr-KOW'-ee), launching an airstrike that pulverized a suspected hideout in Fallujah. President George W. Bush told Americans in his weekly radio address that the economy was growing stronger and more jobs were being created despite Democrats' claim he'd presided over a downturn for the country.
• Five years ago: New York Times reporter David S. Rohde (rohd) and Afghan reporter Tahir Ludin escaped from militant captors after more than seven months in captivity in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford was indicted and jailed on charges his international banking empire was really just a Ponzi scheme built on lies, bluster and bribery. (Stanford was sentenced to 110 years in prison after being convicted of bilking investors in a $7.2 billion scheme that involved the sale of fraudulent certificates of deposits.)
• One year ago: Afghan President Hamid Karzai suspended talks with the United States on a new security deal to protest the way his government was left out of initial peace negotiations with the Taliban. President Barack Obama, speaking in front of Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, pledged to cut deployed U.S. nuclear weapons by one-third if Cold War foe Russia did the same. Actor James Gandolfini, 51, died while vacationing in Rome. Country singer Slim Whitman, 90, died in Orange Park, Florida.
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• Today's Birthdays: Pop singer Tommy DeVito (The Four Seasons) is 86. Actress Gena (JEH'-nuh) Rowlands is 84. Hall of Fame race car driver Shirley Muldowney is 74. Singer Spanky McFarlane (Spanky and Our Gang) is 72. Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi (soo chee) is 69. Author Salman Rushdie is 67. Actress Phylicia Rashad is 66. Rock singer Ann Wilson (Heart) is 64. Musician Larry Dunn is 61. Actress Kathleen Turner is 60. Country singer Doug Stone is 58. Singer Mark DeBarge is 55. Singer-dancer Paula Abdul is 52. Actor Andy Lauer is 51. Rock

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