2002—The N.Y. Times publishes fake news about aluminum tubes based on a White House leak. Later that day the White House cites the story as proof Iraq plans to build nukes.
1988—Dan Quayle says, “Republicans understand the importance of bondage between parent and child.”
1978—The Shah of Iran uses U.S.-made tanks and helicopter gunships to put down the Black Friday riots in Tehran; 89 die. Six months later the Ayatollah’s in charge.
1974—Ford pardons Nixon [see 9/7].
1972—In exchange for a $200,000 contribution from Ray A. Kroc to R. Nixon’s reelection campaign, the Federal Price Commission OKs a previously-denied hike in the price of McDonalds quarter-pounders.
1964—Concord, N.H.-born “Rebel Girl” Elizabeth Gurley Flynn is given a state funeral at the Kremlin.
1935—Senator Huey P. Long [D–La.] gets a bullet in the torso. Dr. Carl Weiss, who may have shot him, is riddled with 60 bullets by Long’s bodyguards—one of whom might have actually shot Long.
1934—In a nor’easter off New Jersey, its captain dead of a heart attack, the Morro Castle catches fire. The blazing hulk runs aground, with 137 passengers and crew dead.
1923—Poor navigation leads a squadron of 14 new Navy destroyers astray off the California coast. Seven ships run aground and 23 sailors are killed.