2018—Nearly naked, fully schizophrenic, Travis Reinking kills four and injures two at a Nashville Waffle House with an AR-15 police had seized but his father had returned.
2004—U.S. Army Spec. and ex-NFL star Pat Tillman is shot by his own side in Afghanistan; a cover-up ensues.
2002—Dick “Dick” Cheney, fundraising in Florida, says “The Taliban is out of business permanently.”
1987—The Supreme Court rules in McCleskey v Kemp that just because the death penalty is applied in a racially biased manner, that’s no reason for states to stop killing Black convicts.
1983—The first two jolts from Alabama’s electric chair set John Louis Evans on fire. It takes a third to stop his heart from beating, though.
1973—“Just remember you’re doing the right thing [lying about Watergate],” Nixon tells Haldeman. “That’s what I used to think when I killed some innocent children in Hanoi.”
1971—Capitol police arrest 110 Vietnam veterans for serenading the Supreme Court with God Bless America.
1956—Rebecca West perfects journalism’s definition: “An ability to meet the challenge of filling the space.”
1915—The 2nd Battle of Ypres begins. Germany’s 4th Army, under the supervision of four future Nobel winners, conducts the first chlorine gas attack, against French Territorial soldiers. Despite 117,000 casualties, the month-long battle is inconclusive.