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Detroit’s WWI Sabotage Plot & Madonna’s First Hit | December 22

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On this day in 1917, Albert Carl Kaltschmidt was convicted for leading a plot to sabotage Detroit businesses, Windsor, Canada, and a railroad tunnel in Port Huron during World War I. Only one explosion succeeded, and Kaltschmidt was fined $20,000, imprisoned for three years, and deported. In 1984, Bay City’s Madonna scored her first Billboard No. 1 single with Like a Virgin, which stayed at the top for six weeks.

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