2006—The “Justice” Department fires eight prosecutors for failing to persecute enough Democrats.
1997—Six skydivers leap from a plane over the South Pole. Three of them die when their chutes fail to open.
1995—France is virtually paralyzed when 1.75 million workers protest global exploitation.
1993—The Department of Energy admits it conducted more than 200 secret weapons tests.
1987—A disgruntled ex-employee shoots a Southwest Airlines pilot and co-pilot. The plane breaks up while diving at Mach 1.2, killing all aboard.
1985—Their warnings overruled by Ronald Reagan—selling arms to Iran and giving the profits to assassins is illegal—Cap Weinberger and George Schultz joke about jail visiting hours.
1970—R.I.P. legendary cartoonist Rube Goldberg, from whose work the Gazette cribbed its business plan.
1964—Japan bestows the Order of the Rising Sun on Gen. Curtis LeMay, whose fire-bombing of that nation during WW II probably killed half a million Japanese.
1961—At Peterson Field, Colo., MPs hold civilians at gunpoint as CIA-trained Tibetan commandos are smuggled aboard a C-124.
1941—Japan attacks Pearl Harbor.
1874—Angered by a Black sheriff’s election, whites in Vicksburg, Miss. begin a month-long slaughter of 150-300 Black men, women, and children.