1. 1983: Arnold Schwarzenegger became an American citizen
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It was on this date in 1983 that famous strongman and Hollywood actor Arnold Schwarzenegger officially became an American citizen. In his own words, he considered that day to be “one of the proudest days of my life.” Arnold had first come to America in 1968 under a visa that allowed him to come as an athlete where he was sponsored by Joe Weider, who was a fellow bodybuilder and entrepreneur. A few years later, Arnold changed his visa to one that would allow him to work in the United States. In 1974, he managed to receive a green card that would allow him to become a permanent resident of the U.S, and roughly five years later made him eligible to receive U.S. citizenship. However, it was reported that he waited until 1983 to ensure he would be able to retain dual citizenship in his home country of Austria.
2. 1893: Cherokee Strip Land Run
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Photo: wiki
More than 100,000 people show up on this date in 1893 for what would be the largest “Land Run” in the history of the United States. A Land Run was a race between settlers to lay claim to certain areas of land. There were roughly 6 million acres of land that was once Cherokee grazing land and is now what we know as Oklahoma. Just after noon, the race was started and everything from men on horseback to covered wagons and maybe the occasional person on foot rushing out to lay claim to their own little spot of land. It worked a first-come, first-serve situation so in order to maintain order, there were Cavalry troops positioned all around the area to prevent any mass chaos. Even though there was a significant amount of land available some people still didn’t make a claim. If you happen to see the film Far and Away, with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman there is a great scene showing how the Land Run’s operated and according to reports it seems to be fairly accurate as to how it all went down.
3. 2013: Shooting at Washington D.C. Naval Yard
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Just after 8 a.m. on this date in 2013, a 34-year-old man named Aaron Alexis enters Building 197 at the Naval Yard in Washington D.C. with a sawed-off Remington 870 shotgun and opens fire on random, unsuspecting victims. Alexis had just started working at the Naval Yard on September 9, 2013, as a computer contractor so he had only been employed there for a short time. But he’d spent time as a Navy reservist from 2007-2011. According to reports, Alexis purchased the Remington shotgun and ammunition used in the shooting at a gun store in Virgina just five days after starting the job. He apparently assembled the gun in order to get it into the building, and once inside he went into a bathroom where he reassembled it and came out shooting. There appeared to be no rhyme or reason for the choosing of his victims, the age range, for example, was 46-73 and included both men and women. At approximately 9:25 a.m. Police had finally caught up to Alexis where he was shot and killed to prevent an ongoing shooting spree. When the dust settled there were 12 casualties from the shooting. An FBI report later stated that Alexis was under the “delusional belief” that he was being controlled by extremely low-frequency electromagnetic waves that caused him to commit such a heinous crime.