1996—The U.S. prison population hits 1,600,000, double what it had been just 10 years earlier.
1988—Accepting the GOP nomination, George H.[H.]W. Bush solemnly vows, “Read my lips: no new taxes!”
1960—Kindly old Ike OKs a CIA plot to assassinate Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of Congo.
1959—Sailors aboard the U.S.S. Wasp bring a severe fire under control, barely averting the need to flood the ship’s nuclear weapons storage space.
1950—A climbing party at the summit of the Matterhorn (14,692 feet) encounters a ten-month-old black and white kitten from the Hotel Belvedere, situated at 10,820 feet.
1933—Germany introduces the Volksempfänger, or Peoples’ Radio. Built to Joseph Goebbels’ specifications, it receives only local (Nazi-controlled) broadcasts.
1920—Tennessee ratifies the 19th Amendment; after a 42-year struggle, [white] women get the vote.
1634—Urbain Grandier, a French priest whose sexual prowess earned him accusations from a scorned Mother Superior, is burned at the stake for witchcraft.
1590—Virginia Dare, three, becomes America’s first missing white girl, and an inspiration for future “journalists.”
1587—At Roanoke, Virginia Dare becomes the first white child born in the New World, and an inspiration for future neo-Nazis.