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2010—Street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi sets himself afire, thereby igniting the Tunisian Revolution and the subsequent Arab Spring. 2006—Bill Kristol predicts on “Fox News Sunday,” “Barack Obama is not going to beat Hillary Clinton in a single Democratic primary.” 1998—Impeachment pending, Bill Clinton wags the dog: half the Pentagon’s cruise missiles explode in Iraq. 1967—“I know this beach like the back of my hand,” says Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt, before disappearing in heavy surf. 1960—A U.S.A.F. C-131 hits a Munich steeple, then falls onto a trolley. All 20 on the plane die, along with 18 in the trolley, and 11 on the street. 1951—Black Americans …

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2005—The New York Times reports that the NSA has been tapping U.S. telephones without a warrant. 2001—U.S. troops at Tora Bora ask for  help catching Osama bin Laden. Donald Rumsfeld denies their request; Osama walks. 1988—Bush #41 nominates notoriously boozy womanizer Sen. John Tower [R-Texas] to run the Department of  Defense. His confirmation hearings do not go well. 1988—Perennial Presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche—Rochester, N.H.’s most famous native—is convicted of tax and mail fraud. 1973—Protestors celebrate the 200th Anniversary of the Boston Tea Party by hanging Richard Nixon in effigy. 1970—Big Milk offers Nixon a $2 million “campaign contribution” if he’ll cut milk imports. A fortnight …

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2000—Sen. Phil Gramm gives Enron the energy futures deregulation it wants, hidden in an appropriations bill. One year later Enron is bankrupt. 1997—Paula Jones’ lawyers maneuver Bill Clinton into signing a legal document claiming he’d not had sex with government workers. 1986—Bill Casey, CIA director, suffers a handy seizure, preventing him from testifying about Iran/Contra. 1983—Ed Meese denies Ebenezer Scrooge exploited Bob Cratchit. 1969—The Mormon Church reaffirms its “no Black priests” policy. 1967—A 2.5 mm-deep defect in a part collapses the 39 year-old Silver Bridge over the Ohio River, killing 46. 1960—Police in Palm Beach arrest N.H. resident Richard Pavlick before he can kill John …

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2012—N.H.-born Adam Lanza shoots his gun-enthusiast mother, six other adults, and 20 kids at a Newtown, Conn. school. 2008—“This is a farewell kiss from the Iraqi people, you dog,” yells Muntadhar al-Zaidi, as he flings his shoe at George W.[MD] Bush. 2005—George W.[MD] Bush blames his Iraq War on “faulty intelligence.” He doesn’t say whose. 1987—Chrysler admits it sold thousands of used cars as new ones. 1986—Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager begin a nine-day, non-stop, around-the-world flight. 1981—Secretary of the Interior James Watts, defending taxpayer-funded cocktail parties he’s held at the Lee Mansion, says “Mr. Reagan has the White House. I have Arlington.” 1973—Richard Nixon …

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2009—Sen. Joe Lieberman [I-Conn.] nixes a Medicare public option. 2003—U.S. troops drag Saddam Hussein out of a hole in the ground, so final victory in Iraq must be imminent. U.S. death toll so far: 547. 2000—Al Gore decides he’d rather be righteous than be president. 1988—In Texas, Ray Landry’s death is delayed 14 minutes when a tube falls from his arm and lethal chemicals spray across the room. 1978—An eager public finally gets its first Susan B. Anthony dollars. 1974—Defecting oceanographer Slava Kurilov leaps from a Soviet cruise ship, swims for three days, and reaches the Philippines safely. 1954—Because he sold a house in a …

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2006—The Portsmouth Herald misquotes Sen. Barack Obama [D-Ill.], who, the day before, in Portsmouth, did not say, “The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice.” 2005— “I think we are welcomed [in Iraq],” says George W.[MD] Bush, “but it was not a peaceful welcome.” 2000—The Supreme Court selects George W.[MD] Bush as the 43rd President of these disunited states. 1998—For good measure, Congress whups a fourth article of impeachment on Pres. Clinton. 1995—A Flag Protection Amendment fails by three votes in the Senate. 1985—Arrow Air Flight 1285 crashes at Gander, killing 248 U.S. paratroopers and eight crew. Islamic Jihad claims credit, …

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