2001—George W.[MD] Bush signs an Executive Order conveniently hiding his father’s misdeeds as Veep.
1981—“[T]elevision is just another appliance—it’s a toaster with pictures,” says FCC Chair Mark Fowler.
1972—The Piscataqua Bridge opens.
1968—At My Tho, two limpet mines kill 26 aboard the U.S.S. Westchester County—the Navy’s deadliest single incident of the Vietnam War.
1966—Lyndon Johnson, lying, tells U.S. troops in Korea that his great-great grandaddy died at the Alamo.
1963—Generals in Saigon lay seige to the Presidential Palace—with U.S. government approval, of course.
1955—Angry with his mother, who left him in an orphanage, Jack Graham kills her and 43 other people. He’s only charged for her murder since it’s not yet illegal to blow up airliners.
1951—Six thousand soldiers are exposed to an A-bomb explosion in Nevada “for training purposes.”
1950—Two Puerto Rican Nationalists attack Blair House, trying to assassinate Harry S Truman; two Secret Service agents die, two are wounded.
1949—On live TV, Sen. Edwin Johnson [D-Colo.] blurts out “…here’s the thing that is top secret. Our scientists…have been trying to make what is known as a superbomb.” The leak forces Truman to OK an H-bomb.
1918—A scab motorman causes the Malbone Tunnel disaster in New York City; 97 die, 255 are injured.