Thurs, April 23

2018—U.S. President #45 says, “If [George Washington] was smart, he would’ve put his name on [Mount Vernon]. You’ve got to put your name on stuff or no one remembers you.” 1985—“Hey! It’s the New Coke!” 1971—National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, speaking over the phone with Allen Ginsberg, agrees to meet personally but draws the line at doing so naked on live TV. 1971—Concluding Operation Dewey Canyon III, “a limited incursion into the country of Congress,” Vietnam Veterans Against the War heave medals over a fence at the Capitol. 1956—The USSR proudly announces it’s now got its own hydrogen bomb. 1952—“Do you know who’s being discriminated …

Read more

Wed, April 22

2018—Nearly naked, fully schizophrenic, Travis Reinking kills four and injures two at a Nashville Waffle House with an AR-15 police had seized but his father had returned. 2004—U.S. Army Spec. and ex-NFL star Pat Tillman is shot by his own side in Afghanistan; a cover-up ensues. 2002—Dick “Dick” Cheney, fundraising in Florida, says “The Taliban is out of business permanently.” 1987—The Supreme Court rules in McCleskey v Kemp that just because the death penalty is applied in a racially biased manner, that’s no reason for states to stop killing Black convicts. 1983—The first two jolts from Alabama’s electric chair set John Louis Evans on fire. …

Read more

Tues, April 21

1999—NRA president Charlton Heston says that to honor those massacred at Columbine the day before, the gun lobby’s Denver convention will be shortened by one whole day. 1992—Robert Alton Harris is strapped into San Quentin’s gas chamber at 3:00 a.m. Twelve minutes later he’s taken back out amid legal wrangling. At 6:00 a.m., he’s put back in and successfully gassed to death. 1980—Ronald Reagan says ’Nam veterans can’t get the GI Bill because their war wasn’t declared. It’s not true. 1975—South Vietnam’s last president, Nguyen Van Thieu, calls it quits. 1971—Vietnam Veterans Against the War defy the Supreme Court and stay on the National Mall. …

Read more

Mon, April 20

2017—The remains of South African hunter Scott Van Zyl are recovered from a crocodile in Zimbabwe. 2010—Deepwater Horizon explodes and burns; 11 die and the world’s largest oil spill ensues. Wrists are slapped. 2008—The New York Times reveals that many “independent military analysts” appearing on TV are actually puppets of the Pentagon. 2001—The Peruvian Air Force, with some help from CIA “contract workers,” fires on a plane they think is full of dope. Nope; it’s full of proselytizing American Baptists, two of whom die. 1979—Canoeing near Plains, Ga., President Jimmy Carter valiantly fights off a deranged swamp rabbit. 1977—The Supreme Court says N.H. residents are …

Read more

Sun, April 19

2004—NORAD reveals it once ran a training exercise based on a hijacked airliner crashing into a building. 1995—A Right Wing “militiaman” murders 168 souls in Oklahoma City. 1993—For the good of the children—who end up among the 80 dead anyway—the FBI attacks David Koresh’s Waco, Texas compound. 1989—The USS Iowa’s Gun Turret Two explodes, killing 47. First the Navy blames an innocent sailor, then, disregarding ancient powder, malfunctioning equipment, and unauthorized experiments, says it’s stumped. 1971—President Nixon, recipient of a $200K pledge from ITT—which is being prosecuted for anti-trust violations—tells Deputy A.G. Kleindienst “The ITT thing—stay the hell out of it. Is that clear? That’s …

Read more

Sat, April 18

2002—A U.S. F-16 pilot on “go pills” drops a 500-pounder: Four are KIA, eight are WIA in Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry regiment. 1986—“[W]hen you meet…President [Reagan],” says Henry Kissinger, “you ask yourself, ‘How did it ever occur to anybody that he should be Governor, much less President?’” 1985—President Ronald Reagan says Waffen SS troops buried at Bitburg were “victims, just as surely as the victims in the concentration camps.” 1977—The federal frame-up of Leonard Peltier succeeds. 1974—As Professor Irwin Corey accepts Thomas Pynchon’s National Book Award for Gravity’s Rainbow, a streaker dashes across the stage. 1968—The Army admits that nerve gas from Dugway Proving …

Read more