2014—A spokesman for the Islamic State calls U.S. Sec. of State John Kerry an “uncircumcised old geezer.”
2001—CIA chief George Tenet tells the V.P. his claim that Iraq and al-Qaeda are linked is crap, but Dick “Dick” Cheney goes on repeating it.
1989—The Chase Manhattan Bank accepts for deposit a check sent as a prank by Spy Magazine. Endorsed by “short-fingered vulgarian” Donald J. Trump, it’s for $0.13.
1983—Defending the diversity of his staff, Reagan’s Sec. of the Interior, James G. Watt boasts, “I have a Black, a woman, two Jews, and a cripple.”
1982—Edward Lee Howard, a CIA agent suspected of spying for the U.S.S.R., eludes FBI surveillance in Santa Fe and splits for Helsinki.
1976—Ex-Chilean Ambassador to the U.S. Orlando Letelier, and assistant Ronni Moffit, are assassinated by car bomb in Washington, D.C.
1956—Testing a Grumman F-11, T.W. Attridge, Jr. hits the afterburner. Its jets ingest just-fired 20 mm rounds: he shoots himself down—but lives.
1956—Loathsome Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza García is assassinated by Rigoberto López, poet.
1938—A nameless 183 m.p.h hurricane kills 700 in New England.
1915—As a whim, Cecil Chubb pays £6,600 at an auction for Stonehenge.
1897—A New York Sun editorial lies to a girl named Virginia, telling her a mythical “Santa Claus” is real.