Thurs, Aug 20

2018—Greta Thunberg strikes, demanding action on the climate crisis. 1998—Days after admitting he’d lied about sex with an intern, Bill Clinton throws 13 Tomahawk missiles at Sudan’s only pharmaceutical factory. 1986—Former Marine Patrick Sherrill “goes postal” in Edmond, Okla.; he kills 14 co-workers and wounds six. 1975—A bomb explodes in front of San Francisco Mayor Joe Alioto’s home. Top suspects? City cops, who are conducting an illegal strike. 1965—Keene, N.H. seminary student & civil rights worker Jonathan Daniels is murdered in Nayneville, Ala. White jurors acquit his killer. 1945—Ex-puppet Emperor Bao Dai warns Charles de Gaulle, if France tries to rule Vietnam, “each village will …

Read more

Wed, Aug 19

1999—The FBI adds the name of James “Whitey” Bulger—its partner in crime—to its “Most-Wanted” list. 1997—Anti-regulation fanatic Carl Drega murders two cops, a selectman, and a judge in Colebrook, N.H. The carnage inspires Vin Suprynowicz, future Signed Member of the Free State Project, to write an essay and a book sympathizing with the killer. 1953—Despite setbacks four days earlier, the CIA’s coup succeeds in Iran. All will be well now, right? 1950—Called “blind,” “stupid,” and “pig-headed,” Rep. Clarence Cannon, [D-Mo.], shouts “I’ve taken all I’m going to” as he rushes Sen. Kenneth McKellar [D-Tenn.]. Senators wrest the gavel from McKellar, 81, before he can apply …

Read more

Tues, Aug 18

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 …

Read more

Mon, Aug 17

2008—Confederate widow Maudie Hopkins dies in Arkansas at 93. She married William M. Cantrell in 1934, when he was 86 and she was 19. 2002—U.S. Generals admit that the U.S. assisted Iraq during its war against Iran knowing that Saddam Hussein would “use chemical weapons against his own people.” 1998—“It depends,” President Clinton tells a Grand Jury, “on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.” 1988—A Pakistani C-130 explodes in mid-air killing President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. General Pervez Musharraf, also scheduled to be on-board, somehow misses the flight. 1988—J. Danforth Quayle informs the Republican National Convention, “in 1988 the question is whether we’re going forward …

Read more

Sun, Aug 16

2017—Free State reject Chris Cantwell posts a video online which earns him the moniker, “The Crying Nazi.” 2002—Army Times reports that the recent “Millennium Challenge” war games were “almost entirely scripted to ensure a [U.S. military] win.” 1971—John Dean writes his boss, Richard Nixon, a memo on how to “use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies.” 1968—Armed guards subdue—temporarily—228 rioting Marines in the brig at Danang, wounding seven. 1956—F-89s shoot up a car and two houses, and burn 800 acres of L.A., but fail to down a rogue target drone. 1951—In France, Pont-Saint-Esprit suddenly seems to go mad. Ergot is blamed at …

Read more

Sat, Aug 15

1977—Ohio State’s “Big Ear” radio telescope records a 72-second burst suggesting there may be intelligent life…out there, somewhere. 1971—With the U.S. budget busted by the Vietnam War, Richard Nixon reneges on the gold standard. 1969—Half a million half-naked, drugged-up baby boomers begin a three-day mud wallow in Bethel, N.Y. 1966—The New York Herald Tribune, founded as the Tribune by N.H.-born Horace Greeley 125 years earlier, succumbs to a strike called by a labor union also founded by Greeley. 1953—T.R.’s grandson Kermit sends Iran’s Imperial Guard to arrest the Prime Minister, but they’re captured by his guards. The Shah flees to Rome. 1945—It’s V.J. Day. WW …

Read more