1945 – Occupation of Japan/Shinto Directive: General Douglas MacArthur orders that Shinto be abolished as the state religion of Japan.
1960 – Richard Pavlick is arrested for plotting to assassinate U.S. President-Elect John F. Kennedy.
1960 – King Mahendra of Nepal suspends the country’s consti- tution, dissolves parliament, dismisses the cabinet, and impos- es direct rule.
1970 – Soviet spacecraft Venera 7 successfully lands on Venus. It is the first successful soft landing on another planet.
1973 – The American Psychiatric Association votes 13-0 to remove homosexuality from its official list of psychiatric disor- ders, the DSM-II.
1978 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will recognize the People’s Republic of China and sever diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
2000 – The third reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is shut down.
2001 – The Leaning Tower of Pisa reopens after 11 years and $27,000,000 spent to stabilize it, without fixing its famous lean.
2005 – Introduction of the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor into USAF active service.
2014 – A gunman takes 18 hostages inside a café in Martin Place for 16 hours in Sydney. Monis and two hostages are killed when police raid the café the following morning.
