2005—Congress apologizes for having failed to pass 200 anti-lynching bills between 1882 and 1968.
2003—“His [Joe Wilson’s] wife is in the [CIA] and is a WMD analyst,” Dep. Sec. of State Richard Armitage tells Bob Woodward. “How about that s__t?”
1989—President George Herbert [Hoover] Walker Bush vetoes a raise in the minimum wage.
1985—Thomas L. Slade and son William are among passengers hijacked on a flight from Beirut, their second such experience in three days.
1983—Pioneer 10 exits the solar system.
1971—Pentagon Papers are published.
1968—A U.S. helicopter crew blasts a Vietnamese command post, killing Saigon’s Police Chief. It’s an accident.
1966—The Supreme Court rules that cops can’t make you talk.
1944—News reports say Rep. Francis E. Walter (D-Penn.) gave FDR a letter-opener made from the arm bone of a dead Japanese soldier. Walter becomes chair of HUAC in 1955.
1944—German V-1 “buzz-bomb” attacks on England start.
1942—The German sub U-202 lands eight Nazi saboteurs at Amagansett on Long Island.
1934—Hollywood producers conspire to enact a code to protect their profits from prudes.
1920—Fuddy-duddies at the U.S. Post Office rule that children may no longer be shipped by Parcel Post.