2011—“[A]ny future Defense Secretary who advises the President to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should have his head examined,” says Defense Sec. Gates.
2003—Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki warns that Donald Rumsfeld’s plan to occupy Iraq dramatically underestimates troop requirements.
1968—“I do not believe Hanoi can hold up under a long war,” says Gen. William Westmoreland.
1953—Ike advises vigilance, lest communist teachers sneak propaganda into math problems.
1913—The IWW’s Paterson, N.J. strike begins; Concord, N.H.’s Elizabeth Gurley Flynn helps organize.
1899—Londoner Edwin Sewell, 31, is the first driver to die in a wreck.
1870—Erstwhile minister Hiram Rhodes Revels (R-Miss.) becomes the first Black U.S. Senator.
1837—In Vermont, Thomas Davenport is granted the first patent for an electric printing press.
1836—Colt patents the six gun.
1836—Joice Heth, formerly exhibited by P.T. Barnum as George Washington’s 162 year-old “Mammy,” is autopsied in New York City at Barnum’s behest before 1,500 paying spectators.
1643—Under orders from the Governor of New Netherlands, 120 Wecquaesgeek Indians are murdered in their sleep at Pavonia, near present-day Hackensack.