1986—Murphy visits Chernobyl: Ukrainian real estate values plummet, northern Earth is irradiated, and thousands are condemned to death.
1970—Someone dynamites the Louisiana Senate Chamber; a pencil remains stuck in the ornate ceiling.
1953—Radioactive rain falls in N.Y.
1952—The captain of the U.S.S. Hobson, disregarding an underling’s advice, takes his destroyer across the bow of the U.S.S. Wasp. Cut in half, the Hobson sinks with more than half its crew, captain included.
1946—Edna Rose Ritchings, 21, a Caucasian-Canadian, marries Father Divine, 65, an African-American religious figure.
1944—The U.S. takes over Montgomery-Ward after it defies the National Labor Relations Board.
1937—German and Italian planes destroy Guernica, Spain.
1931—Lou Gehrig hits a home run but is called out for passing another runner on the basepath.
1922—On the Detroit street where he’d parked it, Henry Ford discovers someone has stolen his Ford.
1901—“I’ll be in Hell before you start breakfast!” says train-robber Tom “Black Jack” Ketchum, whose head flies off after the hangman drops him.
1865—Hatter-turned-cavalryman Boston Corbett, who had earlier castrated himself with scissors to better resist prostitutes, shoots and kills John Wilkes Booth.