2004—NASA reports that the asteroid Apophis has one chance in 233 of hitting Earth in 2029.
1994—Tipped off by a Boston FBI agent that he’s about to be arrested, James “Whitey” Bulger takes a powder. He’s on the lam for 16.5 years.
1988—The FCC bans indecency on radio and TV; somehow, though, they still report on war and politics.
1986—The airplane Voyager completes its nonstop circumnavigation.
1981—Basement digging causes the Foye Building, next to the Portsmouth Athenæum, to partially collapse.
1971—With a million from the Mob in his pocket, President Nixon springs Jimmy Hoffa from federal prison; the Teamsters soon endorse Nixon.
1963—FBI officials begin scheming to “neutralize” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with wiretapping, bugging, infiltration, sabotage, and blackmail.
1955—James Kutcher, a legless WW II vet, has his disability payments cut off, too, because he’s a Socialist.
1953—In Korea, 21 American POWs refuse to go home. In response, the CIA starts studying mind control.
1941—Three sailors trapped belowdecks in the sunken West Virginia since the 7th finally succumb.
1888—Rachel, a prostitute, declines Vincent Van Gogh’s proffered ear.
1849—Tied half-naked to a pole, Fyodor Dostoevsky is presumably pleased to learn he’ll be going to Siberia for four years, instead of being shot.