Sun, Feb 8

2020—Given a choice between a second term for Trump or “a giant meteor [striking] the earth, extinguishing all human life,” a poll says 62% of N.H. Democrats would prefer the meteor.

2015—Another two feet of snow fall on Portsmouth. It’s five feet deep now.

1996—The Telecommunications Act gives corporations airwaves worth $70 billion, eliminates ownership limits, deregulates cable rates, and protects licenses against citizen complaints.

1968—State Troopers fire on Black protestors in Orangeburg, S.C., killing three and wounding 27.

1946—For taking down a sign about Jim Crow laws in a Bessemer, Ala. bus, honorably discharged former Marine Timothy Hood is shot by a streetcar conductor. The Police Chief arrests Hood, then shoots him dead. The Coroner calls it “justifiable homicide.”

1942—HUAC recommends concentration camps for some Americans.

1924—Nevada becomes the first state to kill someone in a gas chamber: Gee Jon, a hit man for the Hop Sing Tong.

1923—Coal dust explodes in Stag Canyon No. 1 mine in Dawson, N.M.; 123 die. Many of them were orphaned in 1913 when coal dust exploded in Stag Canyon No. 2, killing 263.

1912—Free speech is banned in a 49-block area of San Diego. The instigator: press baron and 1st Amendment beneficiary Harrison Gray Otis. Five thousand people, many of them Wobblies, show up to protest.