1967—Chaplain Angelo “Charlie” Liteky carries 23 wounded men to safety in Vietnam despite intense hostile fire. For his bravery he is given the Medal of Honor, which he returns in 1986 to protest U.S. foreign policy.
1962—Speaking to journalists at the Deadline Club in New York City, Pentagon spokesman Arthur Sylvester says “It’s [the] government’s right, if necessary, to lie to save itself when it’s going up into a nuclear war.”
1951—The National Association of Broadcasters adopts a Code of [Cowardly and Obsequious] Conduct.
1937—The Supreme Court rules poll taxes Constitutional—why should Blacks and poor whites get to vote?
1933—Federal judge John M. Woolsey rules that Joyce’s Ulysses is not obscene and therefore may be imported.
1928—In Cienega, Colombia, soldiers with machine guns open fire on workers striking against United Fruit Co. At least 47, and possibly several thousand, workers die.
1918—The U.S. War Department ceases shackling conscientious objectors to the walls of solitary cells.
1917—The largest pre-A-Bomb explosion occurs in Halifax when a munitions ship explodes: 1,600 die; and windows break 40 miles away.
1865—Georgia ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment, thus making slavery illegal—leaving a loophole for exploitable prisoners, though.
342—RIP Saint Nick.