2013—News outlets reveal that the NSA, under a Top Secret court order, has been Hoovering™ up the phone records of millions of Americans.
2008—Despite Mayoral objections and a lack of public hearings, Blackwater opens a training facility in San Diego; a judge says Blackwater’s a person whose rights mustn’t be violated.
2003—Two top New York Times editors resign in disgrace. Curiously, many more do not.
1989—One man, for a while, stops a line of tanks in Tiananmen Square.
1976—In Idaho, the $100 million federal Teton Dam fails, killing 14 and causing $2 billion in damages.
1969—Taken three weeks earlier, at a cost of 72 American lives and 372 Purple Hearts, Ap Bia Mountain, aka Hamburger Hill, is abandoned.
1968—RFK is fatally shot in Los Angeles. The LAPD convinces the gullible that Sirhan Sirhan did it.
1967—The Supreme Court rules that fire departments cannot randomly inspect business enterprises.
1967—Israel attacks Egypt and Syria. The Six Day War begins.
1965—The State Department admits that U.S. troops are engaged in combat in Vietnam.
1943—GIs and zoot-suited Hispanics rumble all over Los Angeles.
1862—France gains sovereignty over three Vietnamese provinces under the Treaty of Saigon and the time-honored principle that might makes right.