2013—News outlets reveal that the NSA, under a Top Secret court order, has been Hoovering™ up the phone records of millions of Americans.
2008—Blackwater begins training at its San Diego facility, despite the Mayor’s objections and a lack of public hearings; a judge says Blackwater’s a person whose rights can’t be violated.
2003—Two top New York Times editors resign in disgrace. Curiously, many more do not.
1989—One man stops a line of tanks (for a while) in Tiananmen Square.
1976—In Idaho, the $100 million federal Teton Dam fails, killing 14 and causing $2 billion in damages.
1969—Taken three weeks earlier, at a cost of 72 American lives and 372 Purple Hearts, Ap Bia Mountain, aka Hamburger Hill, is abandoned.
1968—RFK is fatally shot in Los Angeles. The LAPD convinces the gullible that Sirhan Sirhan did it.
1967—The Supreme Court rules that fire departments cannot randomly inspect business enterprises.
1967—Israel attacks Egypt and Syria. The Six Day War begins.
1965—The State Department admits that U.S. troops are engaged in combat in Vietnam.
1943—GIs and zoot-suited Hispanics get in fights all over Los Angeles.
1862—France gains sovereignty over three Vietnamese provinces under the Treaty of Saigon and the time-honored principle that might makes right.