2004—Portsmouth’s Leftist Marching Band debuts before a surprised and delighted audience in Market Square.
1980—Jimmy Carter gives South Korean dictator Chun Doo Hwan the OK: use military force against civilians to “restore order” in Gwangju.
1977—Gun rights fanatic Harlon Carter takes over the NRA—46 years after murdering Ramón Casiano, 15.
1968—Scorpion, its nuclear torpedos, and 99 crewmen are lost at sea.
1962—Thomas G. Doty buys dynamite and flight insurance, then boards Flight 11, which explodes. Instead of $300K, his wife gets a $3.00 refund.
1949—Ex-Defense Secretary James Forrestal ambiguously defenestrates from a 16th floor hospital window.
1944—Life publishes a photo of an American girl at her desk with a souvenir sent by her boyfriend in the Pacific—the skull of a Japanese soldier.
1920—Henry Ford’s newspaper, the Dearborn Independent, begins publishing anti-semitic articles based on the bogus Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
1884—Hugh Daily fans 13 for the Chicago Browns pitching with his right hand — the only one he has.
1856—Rep. Preston Brooks (D-SC) visits the floor of the Senate and beats Sen. Charles Sumner (R-Mass.) nearly to death with a cane.
1622—English settlers at Jamestown serve the Powhatans a barrel of poisoned wine, killing 200. They shoot another 50, and scalp the dead.