1996—Hotmail turns free email loose into an unsuspecting world.
1975—Eleven years after Goldwater got the GOP nod there, the Ant Farm’s “Media Burn” crashes a customized Caddy into a wall of burning TVs at San Francisco’s Cow Palace.
1973—R. Nixon’s psychiatrist writes in the N.Y. Times that candidates ought to have their heads examined.
1970—At “Honor America” day in D.C., Billie Graham and Bob Hope preach and joke, protestors smoke pot atop a truck shoved into the Reflecting Pool, and neo-Nazis snarl and jeer.
1951—In Madison, Wisc., 99.2 percent decline to sign a petition containing excerpts from the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights.
1947—The Boozefighters, a subset of “The Greatest Generation®,” take over Hollister, Calif. Three days of debauchery inspire The Wild One and spawn a generation of poseurs.
1924—Four thousand Klansmen march in Long Branch, New Jersey.
1892—The People’s Party meets in Omaha, calling for an 8-hour day, regulation of railroads and communication, and a graduated income tax.
1857—With N.Y.C’s two rival police forces distracted by a feud, the Dead Rabbits/Bowery Boys beef escalates into an unrestrained gang war.
1856—Federal troops under N.H. native President Franklin Pierce forcibly disperse the Topeka (Free State) Legislature of the Kansas Territory.