Tues, May 16

2017—Recep Tayyip Erdoğan watches two dozen goons attack protestors outside the Turkish Embassy in Washington, D.C. Four are arrested, but charges are then dropped.

2001—Ex-FBI Special Agent, devout Catholic, patron of strippers, and amateur exhibitionist Robert Hanssen is indicted for selling U.S. secrets to the U.S.S.R., then the Russians.

1974—Bill Harris, terrorist, is caught shoplifting socks from Mel’s Sporting Goods in L.A.; but he and wife Emily escape as heiress Patty Hearst blasts the storefront with a machine gun.

1969—AP finds that on Hamburger Hill, some grunts are disgruntled.

1965—Tons of bombs go off at Bien Hoa Air Base, and a million gallons of fuel go up. Dead: 28; injured: 105. Ten B-57s and 16 other planes: destroyed.

1948—CBS correspondent George Polk turns up murdered in Salonika Harbor. The U.S.-supported Greek government frames a Commie, and U.S. journalists cover up the frame.

1918—Congress passes the Sedition Act. It’s now a crime to “ . . .willfully utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States, or the Constitution of the United States . . . .”

1879—Two men in Raleigh, N.C. are hanged twice: the ropes were too long the first time. In Utah, a firing squad misses the condemned man’s heart; it takes him 27 minutes to die.

Leave a Comment