2005—A U.S. official reports that $9,000,000,000 is… well… sort of… let’s say “unaccounted for” in Iraq.
1981—An FB-111A “Aardvark” based at Pease AFB crashes near homes at Mariner’s Village, about 1.25 miles northwest of Market Square. Though one apartment building is destroyed, no one is injured.
1976—The Supreme Court decides that limiting campaign contributions would unfairly restrict the speech of a privileged minority group: people with unlimited amounts of money.
1972—“Bloody Sunday” in Northern Ireland: British soldiers gun down 14 Catholic civil-rights marchers.
1968—Two hundred colonels in the U.S. MACV staff attend a pool party in Saigon. “Not one… knew Tet was coming” the next day, an analyst says later.
1945—A Soviet sub sinks the MV Wilhelm Gustloff; some 9,400 drown, mostly civilians, half children.
1933—Destabilized by austerity, largely self-inflicted, Germany allows the Nazis to seize power.
1798—Called a scoundrel on the House floor by Rep. Roger Griswold [F-Conn.], Rep. Matthew Lyon [D-R-Vt.], spits in Griswold’s face.
1661—Oliver Cromwell, two years dead, is exhumed and decapitated. His head spends 20 years on a pike, and goes unburied until 1960.
1649—The limits of divine right finally dawn on Charles I, thanks to Oliver Cromwell and an executioner’s ax.