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On This Day: Psychiatrists say being gay isn't mental illness

On Dec. 15, 1973, the American Psychiatric Association reversed its longstanding position and declared that being gay isn't a mental illness.

By UPI Staff
San Francisco Mayor Edmund Lee waves a flag in the annual LGBT Pride Parade in San Francisco on June 25. On December 15, 1973, the American Psychiatric Association reversed its longstanding position and declared that being gay isn't a mental illness. File Photo by Terry Schmitt/UPI
1 of 4 | San Francisco Mayor Edmund Lee waves a flag in the annual LGBT Pride Parade in San Francisco on June 25. On December 15, 1973, the American Psychiatric Association reversed its longstanding position and declared that being gay isn't a mental illness. File Photo by Terry Schmitt/UPI | License Photo

Dec. 15 (UPI) -- On this date in history:

In 1791, the Bill of Rights, comprising the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, took effect.

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In 1890, Sioux Indian leader Sitting Bull was killed in a skirmish with U.S. soldiers along the Grand River in South Dakota.

In 1939, the film version of Gone with the Wind premiered in Atlanta.

In 1961, Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi SS officer regarded as the architect of the World War II Holocaust, was condemned to death by an Israeli war crimes tribunal.

In 1973, John Paul Getty III is found alive at a gas station outside of Naples, Italy, more than four months after he was kidnapped.

In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association reversed its longstanding position and declared that being gay isn't a mental illness.

In 1989, Panamanian lawmakers designated Gen. Manuel Noriega head of state and declared that a "state of war" existed with the United States.

File Photo courtesy EPA/STF

In 1990, in a landmark right-to-die case, a Missouri judge cleared the way for the parents of Nancy Cruzan to remove their daughter from life-support systems.

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In 1992, Salvadorans celebrated the formal end to their country's 12-year civil war.

In 1993, British Prime Minister John Major and Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds issued a "framework for lasting peace" in Northern Ireland.

In 1997, 85 people were killed in the crash of a Tajik Airlines charter jetliner in the United Arab Emirates.

In 2001, the leaning Tower of Pisa reopened after a decadelong restoration effort.

In 2006, Al-Jazeera English, the world's first English-language news TV channel with headquarters in the Middle East, was launched in Doha, Qatar. The Pentagon got access to the channel more than a week earlier.

In 2011, the United States formally ended its long military mission in Iraq in a solemn ceremony at Baghdad's international airport. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta declared the war was over. It had begun in 2003.

File Photo by Dale Greer/U.S. Air Force

In 2014, Man Haron Monis took 18 people hostage inside a Lindt Cafe in Sydney, Australia. The standoff, which lasted 16 hours, finally ended when police raided the cafe the next morning. Monis and two hostages died in the ordeal.

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In 2016, Charleston, S.C., jurors found white supremacist Dylann Roof guilty of killing nine people at the Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. He was sentenced to death for the shooting rampage.

File Photo by Kevin Liles/UPI

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