1939 - Nationalists enters Barcelona
Barcelona, the Republican capital of Spain, falls to the Nationalist forces of General Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War .
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1945 - Auschwitz
Soviet troops enter Auschwitz, Poland, freeing 7,000 starving camp survivors from the network of concentration camps revealing to the world the depth of the horrors perpetrated there.
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1950 - India Independence
India Formally becomes a republic no longer under British rule. The new President, Dr Rajendra Prasad, takes the oath of office. Dr Prasad was a key campaigner in the nationalist movement of Mahatma Gandhi, along with India's interim Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.
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1988 - The Phantom of the Opera
Andrew Lloyd Webber's Musical The Phantom of the Opera ( Based on the French novel Le Fantome de lOpera 1909 by Gaston Leroux ) has its first performance on Broadway at the Majestic Theatre in New York and is now the longest running Broadway show in history.
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2005 - Glendale Train Crash
A Metrolink commuter train collides with a SUV abandoned on the track causing two trains to derail killing 11 and injuring 200 in Glendale, California, near Los Angeles. The orinal plan of the SUV owner was to commit suicide but he lost his nerve at the last moment he was later arrested and charged and found guilty of 11 counts of murder with "special circumstances."
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2006 - Telegram Ends
Western Union announces the end of Telegram Services from January 31st 2006 the last telegram is sent the next day. The Telegram service more than any other is superceded by the use of E-Mail with the dawning of the Internet age but still exists in some form or other around the world but not as the primary force of fast communication it was at it's beginnings when the Telephone still only had limited numbers. Today when it is used it is for such things as weddings, births, funerals and graduations and even as a secure form of communication ( due to perceptions of the Internet as an insecure medium.
