2007—In Bloomington, Ill., Dee Riddle is startled by a meteorite crashing through her bedroom window.
2001—A Nor’easter begins which will dump 40 inches of snow on New Hampshire’s Rockingham County.
1963—Patsy Cline, singer of “I Fall to Pieces,” dies when her plane crashes.
1960—Alberto Korda takes “that photo” of Che Guevara.
1953—Car thief and armed robber Pearlie Miller, on the lam since an escape in 1948, on the FBI’s most wanted list for one day, is arrested at a diner in Somersworth, N.H.
1953—Everybody dies; this time, to the relief of many, it’s Joe Stalin.
1933—In Germany, the Nazi party wins a plurality in the Reichstag.
1933—On his first full day in office FDR declares a bank holiday.
1927—One thousand U.S. Marines land in China.
1877—A commission run by a railroad tycoon makes “Rutherfraud” B. Hayes President. Hayes bails out bankrupt railroads and betrays freed Blacks by pulling Federal troops from the South. They’re sent North to fight and kill striking railroad workers.
1871—Rosa Luxemburg is born.
1854—“Know-Nothings” heave a stone given by the Pope for use in the Washington Monument into the Potomac.
1770—Evil British troops slaughter innocent Bostonians in the Boston Massacre. (Or, provincial terrorists attack duly constituted authority.)