2016—The lift span of the Sarah Long Bridge is raised for the last time.
2008—On a tip from an Afghani, a U.S. AC-130 gunship shoots up Azizabad. The Afghani’s rival is among the 91 dead; the rest are mostly civilian women and children. Embedded in this bloody fiasco is Fox’s Ollie North, who calls it a great victory.
2002—The Bush Administration announces trade sanctions on North Korea, with which we do not trade.
1992—An FBI sniper wounds Randy Weaver and kills his wife Vicki at Ruby Ridge in Idaho.
1991—Derick Lynn Peterson’s obstinant heart continues beating for ten minutes after his electrocution, so Virginia officials zap him again.
1976—Police arrest 179 at Seabrook, N.H. anti-nuke rally.
1972—Aided and abetted by an FBI informant, 28 leftists burgle Camden, N.J.’s Draft Board and begin destroying documents. Then they’re busted.
1953—The last prisoners leave the French prison at Devil’s Island.
1952—The Justice Department sues four big U.S. oil companies for overcharging on oil shipped to Europe under the Marshall Plan.
1914—In the Ardennes, 27,000 soldiers of the French Army are killed.
1900—Rioters in Akron, Ohio push the world’s first police car into a canal.
1893—Birth of Dorothy Parker. At 70, she wrote, “If I had any decency, I’d be dead. Most of my friends are.”