2011—The gundalow Piscataqua is launched on the eponymous river.
2004—Gary Webb, who exposed the CIA-Contra drug connection, dies from two gunshots in the face. The coroner calls it suicide.
1998—House Judiciary Committee debates impeaching Pres. Clinton for lying about his lewd behavior.
1992—Sen. Bob Packwood (Lecher-Ore.) apologizes for being a serial groper but refuses to resign.
1976—In a memo to President-elect Carter, pollster Pat Caddell makes the case for a “permanent campaign.”
1971—The Senate, buying Wm. Rehnquist’s lie disavowing a letter supporting racial segregation, confirms him for the Supreme Court.
1967—Trying to lower the cost of natural gas, the U.S. government explodes an A-bomb in N.M.
1966—U.S. jets bomb Marines in Vietnam; 17 Marines and Navy medics are euphemized as “friendly fire.”
1943—A year after learning the facts, the Polish government-in-exile reveals to the world that Nazis are “exterminating” Jews. The world shrugs.
1937—G.P. Thompson gets the Nobel for Physics for proving electrons are waves. His dad won it in 1906 for demonstrating that they’re particles.
1789—Moses Brown hires Samuel Slater, a Briton, to build the first U.S. textile mill, in Pawtucket. By poaching British technology and exploiting children, Brown becomes filthy rich.