2010—Alabama prison officials ban the reading of a Pulitzer-winning history of Black forced labor.
1978—The U.S.House opens hearings on the assassinations of JFK & MLK. On Dec. 30th they conclude that conspiracies were likely.
1966—The second term of South African Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, the architect of apartheid, is cut short by five stab wounds.
1949—World War II vet and devout churchgoer Howard Unruh kills 13 of his N.J. neighbors in 12 minutes.
1939—Britain’s legendary Spitfire gets its first ‘kill.’ It’s a British Hurricane mistaken for a German plane.
1939—FDR OKs FBI investigation of “subversive activity.” Oops….
1934—Dan Beacham, Super at the Chiquola Mill in Honea Path, S.C., tells armed scabs to shoot strikers. Seven die, shot in the back; scores are wounded. Beacham’s also the Mayor and Magistrate, so no one is punished.
1901—Pres. Wm. McKinley is assassinated by anarchist Leon Czolgosz.
1872—Rather than pay his deputy a $10 fee, Erie Co. Sheriff and future President #22 and #24 Grover “Big Steve” Cleveland hangs mother-murderer Patrick Morrissey himself.
1869—Pennsylvania’s Avondale Colliery catches fire while 200 men are underground; 110 of them die. Management tries to blames the miners, but their union fights back and wins some basic mine safety regulation.