2004—The NY Times admits that its pre-war Iraq coverage was “not as rigorous as it should have been.”
1972—Nixon’s “Plumbers” fail to break into Democrats’ Watergate HQ.
1970—The FBI’s L.A. office writes a memo: give intel on Black Panthers to rivals; with luck they’ll be killed.
1970—The destroyer USS Richard B. Anderson’s departure for Vietnamis delayed due to sabotage by the crew.
1947—An FBI memo duly notes that It’s a Wonderful Life is communistic.
1937—Ford’s thugs beat hell out of Walter Reuther and three union colleagues in the “Battle of the Overpass.”
1924—Congress sets immigration quotas: Nordic? Cool. Eastern European? Maybe…. “Oriental”? Nope.
1916—Louis Thomas “Moondog” Hardin, composer, street musician, and all-around Viking-helmet-wearing blind eccentric is born.
1824—Women workers in Pawtucket tell mill bosses, “No deal,” and hold the nation’s first factory strike.
1647—In Hartford, Conn., where the State House now stands, Alice “Alse” Young becomes the first American hanged for witchcraft.
1637—At Mystic, Conn., Captains John Mason and John Underhill set fire to the Pequots’ fort, burning alive about 600 men, women, and children.
1608—King Phillip III of Spain decrees that it’s OK to enslave Indians, as long as they aren’t Catholic.