2009—Sen. Joe Lieberman [I-Conn.] nixes a Medicare public option.
2003—U.S. troops drag Saddam Hussein out of a hole in the ground, so final victory in Iraq must be imminent. U.S. death toll so far: 547.
2000—Al Gore decides he’d rather be righteous than be president.
1988—In Texas, Ray Landry’s death is delayed 14 minutes when a tube falls from his arm and lethal chemicals spray across the room.
1978—An eager public finally gets its first Susan B. Anthony dollars.
1974—Defecting oceanographer Slava Kurilov leaps from a Soviet cruise ship, swims for three days, and reaches the Philippines safely.
1954—Because he sold a house in a white Louisville neighborhood to a Black man, journalist Carl Braden is convicted of sedition.
1951—J. Edgar Hoover spooks Harry S Truman into purging “disloyal” government workers.
1949—An American League proposal to legalize the spitball fails.
1932—In the U.S. House, sporting goods store clerk Martin Kemmerer brandishes a .38 and demands the floor. Rep. Melvin Maas (R-Minn.) talks him into dropping the gun.
1864—Paraguay declares war on Brazil; its population is soon halved.
1774—Paul Revere rides to Portsmouth with news that the export of powder and arms to America have been prohibited.