2007—A plane once used for “rendition” flights, carrying alleged terrorists to Gitmo, crashes in the Yucatan with 3.3 tons of cocaine on board.
2006—The New York Times reports that our spies think the Iraq War makes Islamic terrorism more likely.
2006—George W.[MD] Bush says, “When the final history is written on Iraq, it will look just like a comma.”
1981—CIA boss Bill Casey says the Freedom of Information Act shouldn’t apply to intelligence agencies.
1978—On his yacht in Chesapeake Bay, right-handed CIA spook John Paisley takes a shotgun blast behind his left ear. It’s ruled suicide.
1968—Protestors destroy 10,000 draft files in Milwaukee, Wis.
1956—Peyton Place, by New Hampshire’s own Grace Metalious, is published. All hell breaks loose.
1955—Ike’s doc mistakes a heart attack for indigestion; he fakes papers to protect his rep and get Ike re-elected.
1945—Reacting to yesterday’s French coup, the Viet Minh paralyze Saigon with a general strike, storm the jail, and liberate hundreds of comrades.
1924—“Shall We All Commit Suicide?”, an essay by Winston Churchill, frets about “a bomb no bigger than an orange” that could “blast a township.”
1911—Portsmouth-born U.S. Navy Ensign Charles Emerson Hovey, 26, is shot and killed by natives on the island of Basilan in the Philippines.
1896—F. Scott Fitzgerald is born.