2006—Speaking to amputee vets of his Iraq War, George W.[MD] Bush says “I have an injury myself [from] combat with a cedar. I eventually won.”
1994—NAFTA screws unions, farmers, and the environment, but the Zapatistas stand up to fight back.
1975—Nixon cronies H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, and John Mitchell are convicted of felonies.
1959—Castro’s commies take Cuba.
1945—Secret mission is kept too secret: German troops mistakenly shoot down 300 German planes. It’s the Luftwaffe’s worst day of the war.
1880—Elmer J. McCurdy is born in Washington, Maine. He robs banks and trains before he’s shot dead in 1911, then becomes a sideshow attraction and movie prop.
1877—Three Medal of Honor recipients are partying in Brackettville, Texas. One, a sheriff, is supposed to arrest the second for murder, but shotguns him in the belly instead. The third splits on a stolen horse.
1863—President Lincoln proclaims emancipation—in the Confederacy.
1804—Haiti proclaims independence as the world’s first Black republic, the result of a successful revolution.
1781—Troops at Morristown, N.J. seize artillery and march to confront Congress, seeking back pay.
1636—Fishermen on Richmond Island, Maine, including the editor’s 10x great-grandpa William Freethy, stage the second strike in North America.