Nelson Mandela was released from prison after being incarcerated for 27 years in South Africa.
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A steamboat patent was granted to the American engineer and inventor Robert Fulton.
A 44 lb lobster was captured off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada.
The Armenian-Turkish land border opened for the first time in 35 years.
China lifted the country's ban on literature by Aristotle, Shakespeare, and Dickens.
Margaret Thatcher became the leader of the British Conservative Party.
