2016—The Republican presidential nominee brags, in Sioux City, Iowa, “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?”
1986—After getting a FOIA request from the son of the Agency’s former station chief in Mexico City, the CIA destroys audio tape of Lee Harvey Oswald talking on the phone to the Soviet Embassy there.
1973—President Nixon claims his “peace with honor” deal doesn’t betray allies, abandon prisoners, or let the war in Vietnam go on. It does all three.
1968—North Korea seizes the USS Pueblo for spying within its waters.
1957—Klan members in Montgomery, Ala. force Willie Edwards Jr. to jump from a bridge. A judge quashes the indictment of 3 men 19 years later, saying “forcing a person to jump from a bridge does not naturally and probably lead to the death of such person.”
1870—Maj. Eugene Baker’s 2nd Cavalry massacres 173 Blackfeet in Montana, mostly women and children. Chief Heavy Runner dies holding documents guaranteeing safety.
1795—Fourteen Dutch naval ships frozen in the Zuiderzee are captured by French cavalry and infantry.
1570—James Stewart, Earl of Moray and Regent of Scotland, is passing through Linlithgow in a cavalcade when he’s shot from a window with a carbine, making him the first head of state to be assassinated with a firearm.