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This Day in History
May 21
World War II
Nazis kill "unfit" people in East Prussia, 1940
On this day in 1940, a "special unit" carries out its mission-and murders more than 1,500 hospital patients in East Prussia. Mentally ill patients from…
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Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference called for Germany's unconditional surrender at the end of World War II.
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The 1960s
Discontent, rebellion and social change defined the 1960s in the United States, shaking the country to its core.
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John Jay
(1745-1829), member of the Continental Congress, diplomat, and first chief justice, U.S. Supreme Court.
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Freedmen's Bureau
Congress created the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands in March 1865 to assist former slaves in post-Civil War America.
The G.I. bill, officially the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, provided many benefits to veterans of World War II. It established veterans' hospitals, provided for vocational rehabilitation, made low-interest mortgages available, and granted stipends covering tuition and living expenses for veterans attending college or trade schools. Subsequent legislation extended these benefits to veterans of the Korean War, and the Readjustment Benefits Act of 1966 extended them to all who served in the armed forces even in peacetime.
From 1944 to 1949, nearly 9 million veterans received close to $4 billion from the G.I. bill's unemployment compensation program. The education and training provisions existed until 1956, providing benefits to nearly 10 million veterans. The Veterans' Administration offered insured loans until 1962, and they totaled more than $50 billion. The economic assistance provided by the G.I. bill and the Veterans' Administration accelerated the postwar demand for goods and services.
The Reader's Companion to American History. Eric Foner and John A. Garraty, Editors. Copyright © 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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