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1950—Joe McCarthy delivers a five-hour, paranoid rant in the U.S. Senate; a four-month inquisition ensues. 1945—At Iwo Jima, Jacklyn “Jack” Lucas, 17, dives onto one live grenade and pulls another under him. One goes off, one doesn’t. He sets off metal detectors until dying at 80. 1943—Hollywood embraces Office of War Information censorship. 1939—Fritz Kuhn, a German veteran of WW I and naturalized U.S. citizen, leads 22,000 people in a pro-Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden. 1933—At least 20 top German industrialists meet secretly at the Reichstag, President H. Göring’s official residence and—yes, we’ll say it—conspire to raise funds to get Nazis elected. 1893—After the …

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2009—Outraged that the government might assist mere homeowners, CNBC’s Rick Santelli has a fit on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade. His convulsions spawn a Tea Party. 2000—“I understand small business growth,” says George W.[MD] Bush, “I was one.” A business? Or a growth? 1988—Prosecutors in Passaic County, N.J. drop the bogus case against Rubin “Hurricane” Carter—after he’d been imprisoned for decades. 1986—After due deliberation—37 years—Congress ratifies a UN treaty outlawing genocide. 1975—Watergate burglar James W. McCord, Jr. admits that “basically, Martha [Mitchell]’s story is true”—she was abducted and drugged to cover up the break-in. Her abductor, Steve King, is later made ambassador …

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2012—Rep. Bob Morris [R-Ind.] says Girl Scouts use “feminists, lesbians, and Communists” as role models to promote a “homosexual lifestyle.” 2001—Robert Hanssen, a devout Catholic, exhibitionist, patron of strippers, and ex-FBI Special Agent,  is arrested for selling U.S. secrets to the U.S.S.R., then to the Russians. 1976—Jerry Ford accepts the CIA’s word: if it breaks the law, it’ll confess. 1970—All of the Chicago 7 are found innocent of conspiring to incite riots; but five are found guilty of crossing state lines to incite riots anyway. 1962—“We are going to win in Vietnam,” says RFK in Saigon. “We will remain here until we do win.” 1954—Ike’s …

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2021—After poisoning U.S. discourse for 37 years, oxygen thief Rush Limbaugh shuts his lying pie hole. 2017—President Trump declares the press to be the enemy of the people. 2015—A study finds that previous tallies of lynchings in the U.S. had under-counted by at least 800. 2006—Harry Whittington apologizes to Dick “Dick” Cheney for having absorbed a face full of his birdshot. 2003—Covert CIA agents grab Abu Omar in Milan, blowing an Italian surveillance program; 23 agents are later convicted of kidnapping. 2000—“I hate the g__ks,” Sen. John McCain tells reporters. “I will hate them as long as I live”—that’s 18 years. 1985—General William Westmoreland drops …

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1982—Nancy Reagan says, via an aide, she’ll no longer accept “loaned” threads from big name designers because she’s “really…tired of people misinterpreting what she was doing.” 1978—The first computer bulletin board goes online in Chicago. Uh-oh. 1976—The Village Voice publishes excerpts from the House-suppressed Pike Report; among other sins, the CIA, the FBI, and the NSA have been illegally spying on U.S. citizens. 1964—A week after security in Saigon is “tightened,” a V.C. bomb in an American movie theater kills three U.S. soldiers and wounds another 50. 1962—A two-day anti-nuclear march on Washington, D.C. begins. 1959—Fidel Castro is sworn in as Prime Minister of Cuba. …

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2003—It’s the largest demonstration in history—up to ten million people, in 600 cities around the world, say “No” to Bush 43’s Iraq War. 1988—Environmentalists, supporting striking workers, storm Int’l. Paper’s Jay, Maine plant 10 days after scabs create a huge chlorine leak. 1978—On his first day at the Hillsboro, N.H. Messenger, our current editor is told, “Get over to Henniker; last night the cop shop was fire-bombed.” 1973—Nixon to Joint Chiefs: POWs’ return is “an invaluable opportunity to revise the history of this War.” 1966—In place of Senate hearings on the Vietnam War, CBS shows reruns of “I Love Lucy.” Fred Friendly, President of CBS …

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