2006—MV Queen of the North, a Canadian ferry four miles off course, hits an island at 17 knots and sinks with a loss of two lives. Union reps deny crewmembers were having sex at the time.
2003—The chief officer of RMS Mülheim, getting out of his chair while on watch, catches his trousers on a lever, falls and hits his head, losing consciousness. The ship runs aground at Land’s End in Cornwall, a total loss.
1987—The Mobro 4000, a barge toting 3,168 tons of garbage, leaves NYC. After a 162 day, 6,000 mile joyride, it will return to NYC where its contents will be burned.
1986—The U.S. executes its first Vietnam vet in Fla.’s electric chair: David Funchess, a black former Marine with a Purple Heart and PTSD.
1975—A worker looking for air leaks with a candle starts a fire causing $100 million in damages at the Brown’s Ferry nuclear power plant in Alabama.
1933—Germany opens its first concentration camp at Dachau.
1820—Two U.S. Navy Commodores meet at the Bladensburg Dueling Grounds. James Barron, disgraced in the Chesapeake-Leopard Affair, mortally wounds Stephen “Our Country, Right or Wrong” Decatur.
1765—Great Britain attempts to impose a Stamp Act on the colonies. It does not go well.
1622—Powhatans slaughter 400 English settlers—about one-third of the population of Virginia.