1997—In Plymouth, Mass., police serve Native American demonstrators a generous helping of pepper-spray.
1986—As Ed “Meese is a Pig” Meese confesses that profits from illegal arms sales to Iran went to Nicaraguan contras, a reluctant Ronald Reagan fires U.S.M.C. Lt. Col. Oliver North.
1974—Britain outlaws the IRA after two bombs kill 21 and injure over 100 in Birmingham, England.
1968—Lifelong muckraker and media critic Upton Sinclair dies at 90.
1955—The ICC bans racial segregation in interstate bus transportation; the ban is ignored, though, until Freedom Riders force the issue in 1961.
1950—Great Appalachian Storm winds hit 110 mph in Concord, N.H.
1947—For refusing to rat out their friends to Congress, the Hollywood Ten are fired by studio bosses.
1940—Meant to stop SS Patria from deporting Jewish refugees, a Zionist bomb sinks it in Haifa harbor; 267 die.
1915—William J. Simmons burns a cross at Stone Mountain, Ga., founding the new, improved Ku Klux Klan: now it hates Catholics and Jews, too.
1865—Mississippi adopts the first and worst of a wave of Black Codes, assuring whites retain supremacy.
1864—Confederate arsonists set more than twenty fires, attempting to destroy New York City. They fail.
1783—Redcoats evacuate New York as General Washington and the victorious Continental Army arrive.