2017—President Erdoğan’s goons bash protestors outside the Turkish embassy in D.C., and get away with it.
2001—Robert Hanssen, FBI agent, devout Catholic, patron of strippers, and exhibitionist, is indicted for selling secrets to Soviets, then Russians.
1974—Bill Harris, terrorist, is caught shoplifting socks from Mel’s Sporting Goods in L.A.; but he and wife Emily escape as heiress Patty Hearst blasts the storefront with a machine gun.
1969—AP finds that on Hamburger Hill, some grunts are disgruntled.
1966—Mao launches the Cultural Revolution; bloody chaos ensues.
1965—Tons of bombs go off at Bien Hoa Air Base, then a million gallons of fuel burn; 28 die, 105 are hurt..
1948—CBS correspondent George Polk turns up murdered in Salonika Harbor. The U.S.-supported Greek government frames a Commie, and U.S. journalists cover up the frame.
1918—The Sedition Act makes it a crime to “… utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States, or the Constitution” of the U.S.
1879—Two men in Raleigh, N.C. are hanged twice: the ropes were too long the first time. In Utah, a firing squad misses the condemned man’s heart; it takes him 27 minutes to die.
1605—An eight-day conclave, featuring a bone-breaking fight among Cardinals, elects Pope Paul V.