2002—Donald Rumsfeld explains to the unknowing that unknown unknowns are “things we do not know we don’t know”—and he should know.
2001—Florida man Vance Flosenzier drags a seven-foot shark from shallow water; paramedics drag his nephew Jesse Arbogast’s arm from its mouth; doctors successfully re-attach the arm.
1990—AP reports that Adnan Khashoggi and Donald Trump were the only celebrities cheap enough to cash $0.13 checks sent by Spy.
1989—At a chaotic funeral attended by 10 million, Ayatolla Khomeini is twice jostled out of his coffin.
1989—Nuclear weapon manufacturing ends at Rocky Flats, Colo. when FBI and EPA agents raid the joint.
1980—Nuclear-armed B-52s go on alert for the second time in three days; a glitchy computer warns that 2,000 Soviet ICBMs are attacking the U.S.
1975—Governor Mel Thomson calls for the N.H. National Guard to be armed with nuclear weapons.
1971—Native Americans briefly occupy the top of Mount Rushmore.
1966—The U.S. military releases Bacillus globigii in New York’s subway.
1949—Orwell publishes 1984. Originally a novel, it became non-fiction.
1944—GIs, Brits, Canadians, &c.hit the beach at Normandy, France.
1943—Leaders of a racist wildcat strike at Packard—who had fallen for the company’s union-busting gambit of promoting Blacks—lose their jobs.