1981—Irish Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich descends in a helicopter for a mass on London’s Clapham Common, bearing the head of Oliver Plunkett.
1973—The U.S. military draft ends. Henceforth, the ranks will be replenished by economic coercion.
1968—A DC-8 carrying 214 U.S. soldiers to Vietnam strays into Soviet airspace and lands in the USSR.
1956—On “The Steve Allen Show,” Elvis sings “Hound Dog” to a basset hound dressed in formal wear.
1946—The U.S. Army detonates the world’s 4th nuclear explosion at Bikini Atoll. U.S. Navy sailors board radioactive target ships the following day.
1943—Willem Arondeus, who blew up Amsterdam’s Public Records building to fight Nazi oppression, says before a firing squad, “Let it be known that homosexuals are not cowards.”
1917—In Boston, 8,000 march against the Great War.
1916—On the first day of the Battle of the Somme, 19,240 British soldiers die and 35,493 go missing. On the plus side, the Brits take three square miles.
1898—Buffalo Soldiers take San Juan Hill, while T.R. takes the credit.
1884—Allan Pinkerton, founder of the strike-breaking, union-busting detective agency, dies of gangrene at 64 after biting his tongue in a fall.
1681—Irish Archbishop Oliver Plunkett, found guilty of treason after a rigged trial on bogus charges, is drawn and quartered in London.