Pope Celestine V resigned after just five months in the job to return to his life as an ascetic hermit.
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The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug was released in theaters in the US.
NASA launched the first-ever active repeater communications satellite.
The English transport ship Duke William sank in the North Atlantic, killing over 360 people.
Driving Miss Daisy, directed by Bruce Beresford, was released.
The third and last moonwalk of the Apollo 17 mission began.
