2018—Greta Thunberg strikes, demanding action on the climate crisis.
1998—Days after admitting he’d lied about sex with an intern, Bill Clinton throws 13 Tomahawk missiles at Sudan’s only pharmaceutical factory.
1965—Keene, N.H. seminary student & civil rights worker Jonathan Daniels is murdered in Nayneville, Ala. White jurors acquit his killer.
1945—Charles de Gaulle is warned by his ex-puppet Emperor Bao Dai that if France tries to rule Vietnam, “it will no longer be obeyed; each village will be a nest of resistance, each former collaborator an enemy, and your officials and colonists will themselves ask to leave this atmosphere which they will be unable to breathe.” Does de Gaulle listen? What a silly question.
1940—In Mexico, Stalinist agent R. Mercader attacks Leon Trotsky with an ice ax. Trotsky tells guards, “Do not kill him. This man has a story to tell.”
1910—In Idaho and Montana, an area the size of Connecticut burns; 78 die, mostly firefighters.
1794—At the Battle of Fallen Timbers, General “Mad Anthony” Wayne secures the Northwest Territory.
1672—Dutch peasants rip out the hearts of head of state Johan de Witt and his brother Cornelis.
1619—The first 20 enslaved Africans in North America land in Jamestown.
1191—Richard the Lion Hearted’s troops bravely slaughter 3,000 Arabs in the Holy Land in Jesus’ name.