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Title
1492:
Columbus "discovers" America [1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992)]
1528:
Cabeza de Vaca begins his journey across America [Cabeza de Vaca (1991)]
1607:
Pocahontas rescues John Smith [Pocahontas (1995)]
1620:
Mayflower voyage [Plymouth Adventure (1952)]
1634:
Jesuit Paul LeJeune visits the Hurons [Black Robe (1991)]
1692:
Salem Witch Trials begin [The Crucible (1996)]
1694:
Sor Juana capitulates [Yo, La Peor De Todas (I, The Worst of All) (1990)]
1757:
French and Indian War: Siege of Fort William Henry [The Last of the Mohicans (1920)]
1769:
Daniel Boone heads for Kentucky [
With Daniel Boone Through the Wilderness (1926)
] [
Daniel Boone (1960)]
1787:
Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson together in Paris [Jefferson in Paris (1995)]
1790:
Slave revolt in Cuba [La Ultima Cena (The Last Supper) (1976)]
1809:
Our 16th and perhaps greatest president is born [Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940)]
1860:
Molly Maguires active [The Molly Maguires (1970)]
1863:
Black Union soldiers of the 54th Regiment attack Confederates at Charleston [Glory (1989)]
1876:
Battle of Little Big Horn/Custer's Last Stand [They Died with Their Boots On (1941)]
1881:
Showdown at the O.K. Corral [Wyatt Earp (1994)]
1892:
The Johnson County War erupts in Wyoming [Heaven's Gate (1980)]
1902:
Crisis in the African American Gullah Community [Daughters of the Dust (1991)]
1919:
Black Sox scandal [Field of Dreams (1989)]
1923:
Racial strife wipes out a Florida town [Rosewood (1997)]
1932:
Lindbergh baby kidnapped [The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case (1976)]
1941:
The Japanese sneak attack catapults us into World War II [Pearl Harbor (2001)]
1954:
Edward R. Murrow criticizes Communist-hunter Senator Joseph McCarthy on his television show [Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)]
1963:
A young president is assassinated [JFK (1991)]
1964:
Cassius Clay becomes Muhammad Ali [Ali (2001)]
1965:
Malcolm X is assassinated [Malcolm X (1992)]
1968:
Ron Kovic, later a leader of Vietnam veterans against the war, is severely wounded [Born on the Fourth of July (1989)]
1969:
Woodstock music festival [Woodstock (1970)]
1969:
Manson family murders [Helter Skelter (1976)]
1970:
Janis Joplin dies [The Rose (1979)]
1973:
Augusto Pinochet takes power in Chile [Missing (1982)]
1973:
Roe v. Wade overthrows most laws against abortion [Cider House Rules, The (1999)]
1974:
Karen Silkwood dies in a suspicious car crash [Silkwood (1983)]
1974:
President Nixon resigns [Nixon (1995)]
1975:
Fall of Phnom Penh/Cambodian War [The Killing Fields (1984)]
1977:
Son of Sam Murders [Summer of Sam (1999)]
1980:
Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador assassinated [Romero (1989)]
1983:
AIDS identified as a disease [And the Band Played On (1993)]
1988:
The U.S. Supreme Court rules in favor of Larry Flynt of Hustler Magazine [The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996)]
1989:
U.S. Congressman receives congratulations for his covert role in the Russian defeat in Afghanistan [Charlie Wilson's War (2007)]
1993:
U.S. defeat in the Battle of Mogadishu [Black Hawk Down (2001)]
1994:
Jeffrey Wigand blows the whistle on "Big Tobacco" [The Insider (1999)]
1994:
Genocide in Rwanda begins [Hotel Rwanda (2004)]
2001:
Airline passengers thwart terrorist attack but lose their lives [United 93 (2006)]
2002:
Journalist Daniel Pearl is beheaded by terrorists [Mighty Heart, A (2007)]
