2016—“We’ve got a couple things up our sleeve that should turn this thing around,” says Rudy Giuliani, two days before Jim Comey reveals the Clinton email investigation is on again.
2001—The CIA invasion of Afghanistan begins: six or eight spooks in a Soviet Mi-17 helicopter, toting 66 lbs of $100s in three cardboard boxes [$3M].
1983—Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov disregards Red Army computers showing attacking American nuclear missiles. For thus averting World War III, Col. Petrov is reprimanded.
1955—As Franco visits Barcelona, Quico Sabaté roams the city in a cab, distributing anti-regime leaflets through the sun-roof with a mortar.
1950—A U.S. Navy minesweeper begins a six-day mission two miles upwind of San Francisco: spraying live bacteria into the air. It’s a great success; at least 800K citizens get a heavy dose.
1945—Mistaking him for a French officer, Viet Minh in Saigon kill OSS Lieut. Col. Peter Dewey. Days before he had filed a report saying the U.S. “ought to clear out of Southeast Asia.”
1918—The Battle of the Meuse-Argonne begins, the last great battle of the War to End All Wars.
1908—Józef Piłsudski, Poland’s future Chief of State, loots a Russian mail train to fund a revolution.
1901—Lincoln’s body is viewed before being covered with two tons of concrete. Among 23 present is Fleetwood Linley, 13, who lives until 1963.