2005—Marines in Haditha murder 24 unarmed Iraqi men, women, and children. One man is tried and convicted of dereliciton of duty.
1967—A 500 lb. bomb from a Marine jet goes astray during the Battle of Dak To; 45 men from the 173d Airborne die, 45 are wounded.
1963—In Havana, Frenchman Jean Daniel, sent personally by JFK, finds Fidel Castro “cautiously receptive” to a rapprochement with the U.S.
1962—Dick “Dick” Cheney racks up his first drunk driving conviction in Cheyenne, Wyo.
1960—At a party in New York, Norman Mailer stabs his second wife.
1932—A petition is signed by 19 of Germany’s top industrialists asking President Hindenburg to appoint a new Chancellor: Adolf Hitler.
1929—A Cisco, Texas mob busts Marshall Ratliff out of jail and lynches him behind a theater at which the play “The Noose” is running. The first rope breaks, the second doesn’t.
1924—Pioneering Hollywood producer Thomas Ince dies at 42, officially from a heart attack, but more likely from a [William Randolph] Hearst attack—a bullet to the head.
1915—A firing squad executes framed IWW organizer Joe Hill; his last words: “Don’t mourn, organize.”
1874—Tammany Hall’s “Boss” Tweed is convicted on 204 counts of fraud.
1863—President Abraham Lincoln dedicates the cemetery at Gettysburg.