2020—“What is the downside for humoring him,” says an anonymous high GOP official to Washington Post reporters. “It’s not like he’s plotting how to prevent Joe Biden from taking power on Jan. 20th.”
2008—Sarah Palin is interviewed on live TV while, in the background, turkeys are being slaughtered.
1980—In Louisiana, an oil rig drilling in the wrong spot hits a salt mine under Lake Peigneur. The rig, 11 barges, and a tugboat disappear.
1979—Fundamentalists seize Mecca’s Grand Mosque, full of hostages. The CIA blames guiltless Iran.
1975—The Senate’s Church Committee issues its report on U.S. efforts to assassinate foreign leaders; 349 pages make it past CIA censors.
1975—Spanish dictator Francisco Franco dies. Reportedly he still is dead.
1969—News reports say American GIs massacred hundreds of civilians at “Pinkville” on March 16, 1968.
1969—At Alcatraz, 14 out of 89 Indians make it past the Coast Guard.
1962—The Cuban Missile Crisis blows over, rather than up. With Armageddon postponed, President Kennedy orders an end to discrimination in federally-funded housing.
1943—Marines land at Tarawa; the death toll is higher by hundreds because planners miscalculated the tides.
1820—A whale attacks the Nantucket whaling ship Essex, inspiring the greatest fish story ever told.