Thurs, May 20

2009—The FBI entraps four Muslim men in a bogus Bronx bomb plot.

2004—U.S. and Iraqi troops raid the home and offices of Ahmed Chalabi, formerly the neo-cons’ most trusted source of Iraqi intelligence.

1989—RIP, Gilda Radner.

1978—Mavis Hutchinson, 53, makes New York City after running across America for 69 days.

1973—The Camden 28, who broke into a draft board office, are acquitted.

1969—After 11 bloody assaults in 10 days, American troops take Hamburger Hill at a cost of 70 dead and 372 wounded. It’s abandoned 16 days later.

1937—George Orwell takes a bullet in the throat while fighting against Franco’s fascists in Spain.

1927—Charles Lindbergh leaves Long Island by air, heading east.

1926—Thomas Edison announces that Americans prefer silent films to those newfangled talkies.

1918—A tornado hits Codell, Kan.

1917—A tornado hits Codell, Kan.

1916—A tornado hits Codell, Kan.

1899—New Yorker Jacob German gets the first speeding ticket—from a cop on a bike, for going over 12 mph.

1873—Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis get a patent for copper-riveted jeans.

1631—Unpaid soldiers first conquer Magdeburg, then loot it. Disappointed with their booty, they slaughter 20,000 Protestants for the greater glory of of the Holy Roman Emperor and the Mother Church.

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