2013—A new heel is inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame: bankrupt blowhard Donald J. Trump.
2003—U.S. troops take Baghdad. It is a great victory.
1990—Once and future Bush appointee John Poindexter is found guilty of multiple Iran/Contra felonies; he later wriggles free on appeal.
1972—With a toy grenade and empty pistol, ’Nam vet Richard McCoy, Jr. hijacks a 727, then parachutes out the back with $500K. McCoy, a National Guard chopper pilot, is arrested days later while searching for himself.
1970—California’s Governor Reagan announces his highly nuanced position on student demonstrations: “If it takes a bloodbath, let’s get it over with.”
1967—In Palo Alto, Robert Jones tells his students that they’ve been part of an experiment in fascism, then screens a documentary about Nazis.
1966—The U.S. discovers an H-bomb it had lost off the coast of Spain.
1954—In a news conference, likeable ol’ Ike erroneously characterizes Southeast Asia as a row of dominos.
1926—In Rome, Violet Gibson, 49, the tiny, frail, and deranged daughter of the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, shoots Mussolini in the face.
1860—Challenged by Rep. Roger Pryor [D-Va.], Rep. John F. Potter [R-Wisc.] proposes dueling with bowie knives; Pryor’s seconds decline.
1775—“Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel,” says Samuel Johnson.