2004—U.S. Army Spec. and ex-NFL star Pat Tillman is shot by his own side in Afghanistan; a cover-up ensues.
2002—Dick “Dick” Cheney, fundraising in Florida, says “The Taliban is out of business permanently.”
1987—The Supreme Court rules in McCleskey vs. Kemp that just because the death penalty is applied in a racially biased manner, that’s no reason for states to stop killing Black convicts.
1983—The first two jolts from Alabama’s electric chair set John Louis Evans on fire. It takes a third to stop his heart from beating, though.
1971—Capitol police arrest 110 Vietnam veterans for serenading the Supreme Court with God Bless America.
1963—South Vietnam is “steadily moving toward a constitutional system resting upon popular consent,” says Secretary of State Dean Rusk.
1956—Rebecca West defines journalism: “An ability to meet the challenge of filling the space.”
1952—America’s TV audience gets its first live broadcast of a nuke blast.
1922—Henry Pitcairn lands an Autogiro on the White House lawn.
1922—Charles Mingus Jr. is born in Nogales, Arizona.
1915—The German 4th Army attacks French Territorial soldiers with chlorine gas as the 2nd Battle of Ypres begins; four future Nobel winners supervise the gas release. Despite 117,000 casualties, the month-long battle is inconclusive.