1985—In Bitburg, Germany, Republican President Ronald Reagan lays a wreath at a cemetery full of Nazis.
1981—Bobby Sands dies of hunger in Maze Prison, defiant to the last.
1970—On the first day of a national student strike, three of the Chicago 7 speak at UNH. Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin smoke a joint onstage.
1961—New Hampshire’s own Alan Shepard prays, “Please, dear God, don’t let me f__k up.” Prayer answered, he’s the 1st American in space.
1960—Gary Powers is a “civilian employed by Lockheed” piloting a “weather research plane,” says the U.S.
1955—U.S. TVs show a mock suburb complete with mannequins hit by a real nuke. The scorched, ragged figures are later displayed at J.C. Penney with a sign saying “This could be you.”
1945—The collier Black Point is torpedoed by U-853 within sight of the Point Judith, R.I. lighthouse.
1945—Sunday school picnickers in Bly, Ore., find a strange object. The Japanese balloon bomb explodes as they’re dragging it out of the woods killing five Sunday school children and a minister’s pregnant wife.
1925—As local boosters had hoped, John T. Scopes is busted for teaching evolution in Tennessee. Prosecutors include a man named Sue K. Hicks.
1886—In Milwaukee, Gov. Jeremiah Rusk orders 250 National Guard soldiers to fire on a crowd of strikers. They comply; seven die.