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North Korea tests first successful intercontinental ballistic missile

North Korea tested an ICBM. The missile flew for approximately 40 minutes, falling 930 km away from the launch site in the Sea of Japan. The missile reached an altitude of 2,802 km. It is estimated that the missile has the capability of reaching 6,700 km on a standard trajectory, meaning that it would be able to hit anywhere in Alaska.

The Statue of Liberty's crown reopens to the public after eight years

President Barack Obama's Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, announced that as a "special gift" to America, the statue would be reopened to the public, but that only a limited number of people would be permitted to ascend to the crown each day.

Hilton hotels are sold to Blackstone for $26bn

Blackstone acquired the premium hotel operator for approximately $26 billion, representing a 25% premium to Hilton's all-time high stock price. The Hilton deal is often referred to as the deal that marked the "high water mark" and the beginning of the end of the multi-year boom in leveraged buyouts.

U.K. ends post-war restrictions on sale of food

Although rationing formally ended in 1954, cheese production remained depressed for decades afterward. During rationing, most milk in Britain was used to make one kind of cheese, nicknamed Government Cheddar. This wiped out nearly all other cheese production in the country, and some indigenous varieties of cheese almost disappeared.

The first broadcast by Radio Free Europe

The NCFE obtained a transmitter base at Lampertheim, West Germany and in 1950 RFE completed its first broadcast aimed at Czechoslovakia. In late 1950, RFE began to assemble a full-fledged foreign broadcast staff, becoming more than a "mouthpiece for exiles".

Statue of Liberty is presented to the US in Paris

The completed statue was formally presented to Ambassador Morton at a ceremony in Paris and de Lesseps announced that the French government had agreed to pay for its transport to New York. The statue remained intact in Paris pending sufficient progress on the pedestal. Consequentially, the statue was disassembled and crated for its ocean voyage.

US Congress proclaims the Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of Independence is the statement adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia which announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain, regarded themselves as thirteen independent sovereign states, no longer under British rule.

Anniversaries of the (in)famous

died 1826

John Adams

died 1995

Bob Ross

born 1965

Jo Whiley