Today in History ...

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1818 – Illinois becomes the 21st U.S. state. 1904 – The Jovian moon Himalia is discovered by Charles Dillon Perrine at California's Lick Observatory. 1919 – After nearly 20 years of planning and construction, including two collapses causing 89 deaths, the Quebec Bridge opens to traffic. 1959 – The current flag of Singapore is adopted, six months after Singapore became self-governing within the British Empire. 1967 – At Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, a transplant team headed by Christiaan Barnard carries out the first heart transplant on a human (53-year-old Louis Washkansky). 1979 – Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini becomes the first Supreme Leader of Iran. 1990 – The 1990 Wayne County Airport runway collision kills seven passengers and one crew member. 1999 – NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander moments before the spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere. 2009 – A suicide bombing at a hotel in Mogadishu, Somalia, kills 25 people, including three ministers of the Transitional Federal Government. 2012 – At least 475 people are killed after Typhoon Bopha makes landfall in the Philippines. 2012 – In Northern Ireland, 15 police officers are injured during rioting at Belfast City Hall following a vote to change Belfast City Council's policy on flying the union flag. 2014 – The Japanese space agency, JAXA, launches the space explorer Hayabusa 2 from the Tanegashima Space Center on a six-year round trip mission to a asteroid to collect rock samples.