2008—The Dow drops 777 points.
2006—Anti child-porn crusader Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) resigns after his lurid e-mails to young males leak.
2002—George W.[MD] Bush claims Iraq has WMDs, al-Qaeda terrorists, and a nuke coming soon.
1980—The Washington Post publishes Janet Cook’s Pulitzer-winning story about a fictional eight year-old junkie.
1976—The Hyde Amendment gives Congress the power to make medical decisions for women.
1972—A short, bearded man in sneakers spontaneously grabs ex-Sec. of Defense Robert Strange McNamara and tries to throw him off the ferry into Vineyard Sound.
1969—The U.S. Army drops murder charges against Special Forces Col. Robert Rheault—the CIA won’t let its agents testify. “Terminate with extreme prejudice” enters the lexicon.
1957—A Soviet nuclear fuel plant blows up near Kyshtym, killing hundreds and spewing more radiation than anything until Chernobyl. The CIA suppresses the news to protect the U.S. nuke industry.
1913—Rudolph Diesel, inventor of the eponymous engine, disappears from the steamer Dresden: a suicide, a murder victim, or an absconder.
1862—Jefferson C. Davis [the Union General, not the rebel President] shoots Union General William “Bull” Nelson dead. Never charged, Davis goes back to fighting Rebels.