1986—Pres. Ronald Reagan says he can’t remember what he knew about Iran-Contra, or when he knew it.
1984—Union Carbide’s Bhopal, India plant springs a leak. It’s a corporation, though, so, no consequences—other than up to 16,000 people dead.
1980—Lyndon LaRouche’s Executive Intelligence Review breaks the story of the “October Surprise.”
1980—U.S.-backed death squads murder four nuns in El Salvador.
1975—Mary Jo Cook, repentant, testifies the FBI paid her to infiltrate Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
1956—Granma lands 82 rebels in Cuba. Only 12 make it to the Sierra Maestra, but that was enough.
1954—The Senate votes to “condemn” Joe McCarthy. N.H. Senator Styles Bridges is one of 22 “No” votes.
1949—The U.S.A.F. asks GE workers at Hanford, Wash. to turn off air filters for a test. Oops—twice the intended amount of radiation gets out.
1946—Oakland, Calif. comes to a halt as 100,000 workers go on a General Strike. Two days later Teamster boss Dave Beck sells them out.
1943—The U.S.S. Sailfish, formerly the Squalus, sinks the Japanese carrier Chuyo near Truk. Aboard Chuyo are 21 survivors from the U.S.S. Sculpin, which had aided in the 1939 rescue of the Squalus; only one of them survives.
1942—Enrico Fermi fires up the first sustainable atomic chain reaction under a Chicago football stadium.