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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!” 1960—Kindly old Ike OKs a CIA plot to assassinate Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of Congo. 1959—Sailors aboard the U.S.S. Wasp bring a severe fire under control, barely averting the need to flood the ship’s nuclear weapons storage space. 1950—A climbing party at the summit of the Matterhorn (14,692 feet) encounters a ten-month-old black and white kitten from the Hotel Belvedere, situated at 10,820 feet. 1933—Germany introduces the Volksempfänger, or Peoples’ Radio. Built to Joseph Goebbels’ …

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2008—Maudie Hopkins dies in Arkansas at 93. She married Confederate States Army vet William M. Cantrell in 1934; he was 86, 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 …

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2017—Free State reject Chris Cantwell posts a video online which earns him the moniker, “The Crying Nazi.” 1977—Elvis allegedly dies. 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. 1966—Chaos erupts as HUAC tries to hold a hearing into anti-war protestors’ alleged aid to the Viet Cong. 1956—F-89s shoot up a car and two houses, and burn 800 acres of L.A., but can’t down a rogue target drone. 1951—In France, Pont-Saint-Esprit suddenly seems to go mad. Ergot is blamed at …

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1980—The rising popularity of skyjackings prompts the FAA to put more gun-totin’ sky marshals on airplanes. 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—TR’s grandson Kermit sends Iran’s Imperial Guard to arrest the Prime …

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2019—The New York Times publishes “The 1619 Project,” arguing chattel slavery was central to the nation’s creation. Conservatives freak out. 1966—“As long as the United States and our brave allies are in the field,” says LBJ, “[a Communist takeover of South Vietnam] is impossible.” 1945—President Truman announces Japan has surrendered. Enlisted sailors in San Francisco celebrate their reprieve with three nights of looting, vandalism, rape, and murder. 1936—In Owensboro, Ky., at 5:30 a.m, 15,000 watch as Rainey Bethea becomes the last person publicly hanged in America. Arthur Hash, the assigned executioner, is so drunk a deputy sheriff has to pull the lever. 1935—FDR signs the …

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