Thurs, Nov 19

2005—Marines in Haditha murder 24 unarmed Iraqi men, women, and children. One man is tried and convicted of dereliciton of duty.

1969—Congress cleverly undermines the opposition to the Vietnam War by introducing a draft lottery.

1967—A 500 lb. bomb from a U.S.M.C. F4 Phantom kills 45 paratroopers of the 173d Airborne Brigade and wounds 45 more during the Battle of Dak To.

1962—Dick “Dick” Cheney racks up his first drunk driving conviction in Cheyenne, Wyo.

1960—At a party in New York, Norman Mailer stabs his second wife.

1932—A petition is signed by 19 of Germanys top industrialists asking President Hindenburg to appoint a new Chancellor: Adolf Hitler.

1929—A Cisco, Texas mob busts Marshall Ratliff out of jail and lynches him behind a theater at which the play “The Noose” is running. The first rope breaks, the second doesn’t.

1924—Pioneering Hollywood producer Thomas Ince dies at 42, officially from a heart attack, but more likely from a [William Randolph] Hearst attack—a bullet to the head.

1915—A firing squad executes framed IWW organizer Joe Hill; his last words: “Don’t mourn, organize.”

1874—Tammany Hall’s “Boss” Tweed is convicted on 204 counts of fraud.

1863—President Abraham Lincoln dedicates the cemetery at Gettysburg.

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