1996—The U.S. prison population hits 1,600,000, double what it had been just 10 years earlier.
1988—Accepting the GOP nomination, George H.[H.]W. Bush solemnly vows, “Read my lips: no new taxes!”
1980—Ronald Reagan, thanking the VFW for its endorsement, rebrands a criminal war as a “noble cause.”
1966—China’s Cultural Revolution gets a big boost when a million Red Guards arrive at Beijing to spend the day schmoozing with Chairman Mao.
1960—Ike tells the CIA to assassinate Patrice Lumumba, PM of the Congo.
1959—Sailors aboard the USS Wasp bring a severe fire under control, barely averting the need to flood the ship’s nuclear weapons storage space.
1945—The Japanese government orders its police to set up brothels for the “comfort” of U.S. GIs. Business is brisk until a VD epidemic prompts MacArthur to 86 the enterprise.
1933—Germany introduces the Peoples’ Radio, or Volksempfänger. Designed by Joseph Goebbels, it is only capable of receiving Nazi broadcasts.
1920—Tennessee ratifies the 19th Amendment; after a 42-year struggle, [white] women get the vote.
1590—Virginia Dare, three, becomes America’s first missing white girl, and an inspiration for future “journalists.”
1587—At Roanoke, Virginia Dare becomes the first white child born in the New World, and an inspiration for future neo-Nazis.