2020—Li Wenliang, a Chinese doctor reprimanded for warning of a new SARS virus, dies of Covid-19.
2013—Mississippi abolishes slavery.
1998—GOP-run Congress names Washington National after the guy who fired all our air traffic controllers.
1991—IRA mortars 10 Downing St.
1968—“It became necessary to destroy [the Vietnamese village of Ben Tre] in order to save it,” an American major tells reporter Peter Arnett.
1965—VC attack Camp Holloway near Pleiku killing 9 Americans and wounding 137. The U.S. responds by bombing North Vietnam.
1951—In Korea, Capt. Lewis Millett leads the U.S.’s most recent bayonet charge. This anachronistic victory earns him the Medal of Honor.
1950—Ex-Emperor Bao Dai [1926–1945], ineffectual serial puppet, first of the Japanese, then the French, is recognized by the U.S. as ruler of the bogus State of Vietnam.
1926—Negro History Week, the precursor to Black History Month, is celebrated for the first time.
1919—Michigan’s Supreme Court dooms Homo sapiens by ruling that corporations must put profits for stockholders above all else.
1873—It’s Sheriff and future Pres. Grover Cleveland’s 2nd hanging: John Gaffney takes 23 minutes to die.
1848—Le Représentant du peuple, the first anarchist paper, is begun by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon.