Tues, Nov 10

2004—George W.[MD] Bush nominates a new Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales—who goes on to make his predecessor John Ashcroft look slightly less terrible by comparison.

1982—The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, a gift to the nation from those it had shunned, opens in Washington, D.C.

1975—The ore carrier Edmund Fitzgerald sinks on Lake Superior, taking with her a crew of 29.

1973—In Drake, N.D. the school board fires a teacher and burns the book he assigned, Slaughterhouse Five.

1972—Anti-police brutality activist Louis Moore, threatened with bogus charges by Detroit police, tries a radical remedy: skyjacking a DC-9 out of Birmingham, Ala. A two-day, nine-stop odyssey ends in a Cuban prison and leads to airport searches.

1964—Australia re-introduces the draft to protect the Empire from Ho.

1961—Estelle Griswold is busted for selling contraceptives to married couples. Her winning appeal established a right to privacy—enjoy it while it lasts.

1950—Flying over Canada, a U.S. Air Force crew in a B-50 experiences engine trouble. They chuck the bomb (minus its plutonium core) which then explodes in Riviere du Loup, Quebec.

1898—In Wilmington, N.C., 400 Democrats murder hundreds of Blacks and overthrow the city government by force. Newspaperman, future Sec. of the Navy and Amb. to Mexico Josephus Daniels is a ringleader.

Leave a Comment