2012—“Today is the day that in 1924 Woodrow Wilson died, that son of a bitch,” says radio-active dingbat Glenn Beck, “and I’m happy.”
2006—After Don Rumsfeld likens H. Chavez to Hitler, Venezuela’s VP compares the U.S. to the Third Reich.
1959—In Iowa, a plane crash kills Buddy Holly, “The Big Bopper,” and Richie Valens.
1956—Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash rock out at Sun studio in Memphis.
1933—The Senate fires Sergeant at Arms David S. Barry for writing, “there are not many crooks in Congress…who sell their vote for money, and it is pretty well known who those few are; but there are many demagogues…that will vote [to] help their political and social fortunes.”
1931—Arkansas’ state legislature votes to pray for the soul of H.L. Mencken after he calls the state “the apex of moronia.”
1916—In Zurich, Hugo Ball opens Café Voltaire, hotbed of dadaism.
1870—The 15th Amendment is ratified: Black male Americans are told they can now vote.
1811—Future newspaperman and notable eccentric Horace Greeley is born on a farm in Amherst, N.H.
1793—Shot in the face and bayoneted 13 times by the British at Lexington17 years earlier,Samuel Whittemore, a farmer, dies of natural causes at 98.
1468—RIP Johannes Gutenberg.