Fri, Nov 13

2003—Because he would not remove his Ten Commandments monument from the courthouse, Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore is himself removed.

1982—The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C. Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, and Robert McNamara are no-shows.

1974—Karen Silkwood, a disgruntled Kerr-McGee worker, conveniently turns up dead.

1970—Up to half a million die as a cyclone hits Bangladesh.

1965—The dysfunctional tinderbox Yarmouth Castle burns en route to Nassau; 90 passengers burn or drown, deserted by captain and crew.

1942—The torpedoed cruiser U.S.S. Juneau sinks in 20 minutes, 100 of 673 surviving the explosion. Two other cruisers depart, assuming no survivors. Eight days later, ten are rescued. Among the dead are the five Sullivan brothers, of Waterloo, Iowa.

1933—Hormel workers in Austin, Minn. invent the sit-down strike.

1909—In a Cherry, Ill. coal mine, lit by torch due to an electrical outage, a cartload of hay for mules catches fire. The resultant inferno kills 259 miners.

1887—On the original Bloody Sunday, British cops, soldiers, and cavalry charge the unemployed in Trafalgar Square, killing 3 and arresting 300.

1877—A locomotive and three freight cars plunge from an open drawbridge into the Piscataqua, just missing three ships; there are no injuries.

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