2013—Congress ends long-term unemployment benefits to 1.3 million Americans, damaging the economy to the tune of an estimated 240,000 jobs.
1986—Terry Dolan, closeted, anti-gay GOP activist, dies of AIDS.
1983—Dr. George Graham, of President Reagan’s Task Force on Food Assistance, says Black children are “probably the best-nourished group in the U.S.”—citing athletes as proof.
1973—In space, the crew of Skylab goes on strike to protest over-work and micro-management. NASA meets the demands of the astronauts.
1973—The Akron, Ohio Chamber of Commerce denounces the Soap Box Derby as a cheat and a fraud.
1971—At the White House, 88 ’Nam vets are busted for protesting their war.
1948—A DC-3 disappears with 32 on board in an area soon to be known as the Bermuda Triangle.
1945—Congress recognizes the “Pledge of Allegiance,” authored by Christian Socialist Francis Bellamy.
1936—Sit-down strikers close Cleveland’s General Motors plant.
1917—H.L. Mencken publishes a phony history of the bathtub, now widely accepted as gospel.
1879—As the body of the late, legendary stagecoach driver “One-Eyed Charlie” Parkhurst, 67, is prepared for burial in Watsonville, Calif., it becomes clear that he was a she—specifically, Charlotte Darkey Parkhurst, born in 1812 in Lebanon, N.H.