2008—Somali pirates capture the MV Faina, a 500-foot freighter whose cargo includes 33 Soviet tanks.
2007—Because Judge Sharon Keller refuses to work overtime, Texas kills Michael Richard on schedule.
2003—An early draft of an interim report from weapons inspectors in Iraq says no WMD have been found.
2002—Disregarding facts, George W.[MD] Bush says, “You can’t distinguish between al-Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror.”
1966—The White Sox beat the Yankees 4-1, at Yankee Stadium. Attendance is 413, the lowest ever.
1962—Vivian Stanshall and Rodey Slater form the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, while listening to the first Sonny Liston/Floyd Patterson fight.
1959—The U.S. Navy loses a nuclear depth charge in Puget Sound. Fortunately it’s lacking a fissile core.
1957—Nine Black kids get to enter Little Rock High School, courtesy of the President and the 101st Airborne.
1945—Vietnamese of all factions massacre French civilians in Saigon.
1926—Henry Ford announces the eight-hour, five-day work week.
1915—At Loos, France, British forces release 150 tons of chlorine gas towards German troops. Then, to their chagrin, the wind shifts.
1789—The Bill of Rights passes.
1662—Portsmouth adopts a bounty: £5 for every wolf killed whose head is “nayle[d] upon the meeting house.”