2004—George W.[MD] Bush nominates a new AG. Alberto Gonzales ends up making John Ashcroft look a tad less terrible by comparison.
1982—The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, a gift to the nation from those it had shunned, opens in Washington, D.C.
1975—The ore carrier Edmund Fitzgerald sinks on Lake Superior, taking with her a crew of 29.
1973—In Drake, N.D. the school board fires a teacher and burns the book he assigned, Slaughterhouse Five.
1972—Facing bogus charges in Detroit, anti-police-brutality activist Louis Moore skyjacks a DC-9. Days later he’s in a Cuban prison and airline passengers are getting searched.
1964—Australia re-introduces the draft to protect the Empire from Ho.
1961—Estelle Griswold is busted for selling contraceptives to married couples. Her winning appeal established a right to privacy—enjoy it while it lasts.
1950—Flying over Canada, a U.S. Air Force crew in a B-50 experiences engine trouble. They chuck the bomb (minus its plutonium core) which then explodes in Riviere du Loup, Quebec.
1934—Declaring martial law, Gov. Benjamin Moeur sends 100 Arizona Guardsmen to stop Californians building a dam across the Colorado.
1898—In Wilmington, N.C., 400 Democrats overthrow the city government and murder hundreds of Blacks. Newspaperman & future Sec. of the Navy Josephus Daniels is a ringleader.