"Huckleberry Finn" is first published, the first Nobel Prizes are awarded, the first transcontinental flight ends, Playboy debuts, and "Avatar" premieres in theaters, all on this day.
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1896: Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who used his fortune from his 350 patenting inventions, including dynamite, to posthumously institute the Nobel Prizes, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 63 in Sanremo, Italy.