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1796 - Carl Friedrich Gauss discovers that every positive integer could be represented as a sum of at most three triangular numbers.

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1821 - The United States takes possession of its newly bought territory of Florida from Spain.

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1834 - Birth of James Abbott McNeill Whistler artist (Whistler's Mother).

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1835 - Birth of Henryk Wieniawski Lubin Poland, violinist/composer (Souv de Moscou).

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1839 - Antonio López de Santa Anna resigns (5th time) as President of Mexico.

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1847 - Urbain J.J. Leverrier and John Couch Adams, codiscoverers of Neptune.

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1856 - Birth of Nikola Tesla; physicist, developed alternating current (dies 1943).

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1863 - Clement Clarke Moore ('Twas the Night Before Xmas), dies at age 83.

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1866 - Indelible pencil patented by Edson P Clark, Northampton, Massachusetts

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1867 - Birth of Finley Peter Dunne US, journalist/humorist (Mr Dooley).

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