2016—MSNBC, CNN, and Fox treat Donald Trump to a free 1.5 hour infomercial consisting mostly of a live shot of an empty podium.
2001—Dick “Dick” Cheney vows to work on “the dark side”—duh.
1976—Unelected Vice President Nelson Rockefeller is photographed giving “the finger” to students at SUNY Binghamton, N.Y.
1975—After winning by 355 votes, losing a recount by ten votes, and winning a ballot appeal by two votes, notorious Red-baiter Louis Wyman [R]—an appointed but not-seated Senator for three days—loses a special election to the droll John Durkin [D].
1974—President Ford announces a conditional amnesty for Vietnam War deserters and draft dodgers.
1968—Richard M. Nixon appears on “Laugh-In” and says, “Sock it to me,” which, eventually, they do.
1964—UC Berkeley bans free speech.
1942—Piloting a B-24 over the Atlantic, J.D Harden spots U-506 with a Red Cross flag across its deck, carrying survivors of the Laconia sinking: soldiers, POWs, civilians, women, and children. He bombs 506, which submerges and sets survivors adrift.
1940—A prescient FDR signs the first peacetime draft into law.
1920—A bomb in a horse-drawn-wagon explodes in front of the J.P. Morgan building on Wall Street, killing 38 and wounding 400.
1620—Mayflower sets sail.