2018—RIP, Emilio V. Maddaloni.
2011—Weeks after a U.S. drone smites his dad, a U.S. citizen in Yemen, Abdulrahman Anwar al-Awlaki, also a U.S. citizen, meets the same fate. Neither ever got a trial.
1984—KFBK in Sacramento replaces Morton Downey Jr., with someone even worse: Rush Limbaugh.
1976—The U.S., presided over by Gerald Ford, Republican, apologizes to Japan, offended by a Hiroshima re-enactment in which Paul Tibbets flew a B-29 over Harlingen, Texas, creating a [mock] mushroom cloud.
1968—The Pentagon orders 24,000 troops back to Vietnam for an involuntary second tour.
1947—Blaming it on “an alliance between industrialists and the Republican majority in Congress,” UMW President John L. Lewis calls Taft-Hartley “the first ugly, savage thrust of fascism in America.”
1947—Broken ribs be damned: Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier.
1943—Prisoners of Sobibor revolt, killing officers and guards. Half the 600 prisoners escape under fire.
1919—Forbidden by their boss to discuss their pay at Vanity Fair, Robert Benchley and Dorothy Parker don signs stating their salaries.
1912—William Schranck, who later says, “any man looking for a third term ought to be shot,” plugs Teddy Roosevelt in the chest. TR, though bleeding, delivers his speech.