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On this day in history – May, 20th , 1862
On this day, May 20, 1862, the Homestead Act was signed into action by President Abraham Lincoln. This act worked to foster settlers to move west of the Mississippi River by giving American citizens 160 acres of land if they were willing to pay a small fee and work on the land to improve it. The act opened up a large amount of American land for ownership, leading to about 10 percent of the total land mass of the United States to be privatized by 1934.
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On this day in history – May 12th, 1949
On May 12th, 1949, the Soviet Union lifted its blockade against West Berlin. Since March 1948, the Soviet Union had blocked the Allies’ road, railway, and water access to the Western sectors of Berlin. Throughout this 11-month period, the United States and British planes had been airlifting supplies to West Berlin and had also been staging a counter-blockade against East Berlin. The success of the US-British airlift and the counter-blockade forced the Soviet Union to abandon the blockade, allowing British and American forces to enter West Germany.