1975—Jimmy Hoffa is last glimpsed by anyone who’s talking.
1969—“I think that history will record that this may have been one of America’s finest hours,” says Richard Nixon in Saigon.
1956—Congress adopts “In God We Trust” as the national motto.
1945—The U.S.S. Indianapolis, having delivered the Hiroshima A-bomb to Tinian, is torpedoed and sunk on its return trip. Its sinking goes unnoticed due to security precautions. Drowning, exposure, and sharks claim 879 of the 1,100 aboard.
1938—Adolf Hitler pins the Grand Cross of the Supreme Order of the German Eagle on his pal Henry Ford.
1917—A statement read in Parliament from Lt. Siegfried Sassoon says “the war is being deliberately prolonged by those who [could] end it.”
1916—German saboteurs destroy a thousand tons of munitions stored on a barge at Black Tom Island in New York Harbor. Three men and a baby are killed; the Statue of Liberty’s upraised arm is hit by shrapnel.
1866—Blacks march for civil rights in New Orleans; rioting whites kill 44.
1864—Union forces breach Confederate defenses at Petersburg with a a huge mine. A drawn straw puts Brig. Gen. James Ledlie in command. Drunk, he sends Union soldiers into the crater; 4,000 are slaughtered.
1419—A religious dispute precipitates the First Defenestration of Prague.