2017—It’s the last “Last Call” at Portsmouth’s Coat of Arms.
1994—Charles Rodman Campbell does his best to dodge it, but Washington State’s hangman finally manages to get a noose around his neck.
1972—Nixon’s “Plumbers” fail for a second time to break into Democratic National HQ at the Watergate.
1962—Centralia, Pa. officials set a fire to clear an underground landfill. The fire spreads to a coal seam; the town is later abandoned. The fire is expected to burn another 250 years.
1959—NBC’s Today Show reports straight-faced on the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals’ satirical campaign to clothe quadrupeds.
1944—NBC censors Eddie Cantor: his song, “We’re Having a Baby, My Baby and Me” is too lewd for radio.
1941—Biplanes sink the Bismark.
1940—As Brits evacuate Dunkirk, Captain Jack Churchill drops a Nazi with an arrow from his longbow.
1923—Arch-fiend Heinz Alfred Kissinger is born in Fürth, Bavaria.
1902—Luna Park’s owners poison then electrocute Topsy the Elephant. Edison’s cameras film the event.
1702—“I am about to—or I am going to—die;” says French grammarian Dominique Bouhours, “either expression is used.”
1541—Margaret Pole, 67, 8th Countess of Salisbury, tries to dodge the ax in the Tower of London. It only makes things worse; the job takes 12 strokes.