The Alleged Editor

1995—A derecho sends hurricane force winds through New York and New England, toppling thousands of trees and killing three people. 1979—President Carter delivers his infamous “malaise” speech, which does not include the word “malaise.” 1974—In Florida, on live TV, newsreader Christine Chubbuck pulls a loaded pistol from a shopping bag and shoots herself dead. 1971—Nixon says he’ll go to China. 1964—The Republican Party saddles itself with Barry Goldwater as a presidential candidate. 1954—“Operation Wetback” begins throwing “Mexican-looking” people out of the U.S. 1919—The then-honestly-named War Department calls 337,000 Americans draft dodgers. 1877—John W. Garrett, President of the B & O Railroad, gives his shareholders a …

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2004—The GOP tries to ban gay marriage but can’t rise to the occasion. 2003—Robert Novak outs CIA officer Valerie Plame in his column. 2000—A Florida jury orders five tobacco companies to pay $145 billion in damages. An appeals court later lets them off the hook. 1989—Alabama tries twice, 19 minutes apart, to electrocute Horace F. Dunkins, who’s black and developmentally-disabled. The first try fails because the chair is wired wrong. 1981—New Hampshire businessman Max Hugel’s stint as Deputy Director of Operations at the CIA ends after 64 days due to revelations of unseemly stock market shenanigans. 1976—In Traves, France, unknown persons celebrate Bastille Day by …

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1999—Sen. Bob Smith (R-N.H.) drops out of the Presidential race, and the Republican Party to boot, to run as an Independent. 1987—Senator Warren B. Rudman [R-N.H] sets Ollie North straight during the Iran-Contra hearings: “The American people have the constitutional right to be wrong.” 1977—During a heat wave and a financial crisis, with Son of Sam on the loose, lightning strikes cause a blackout in New York City. Chaos ensues. 1959—A sodium-cooled nuclear reactor in Simi Valley, Calif. has a partial meltdown, releasing 300 times more radiation than Three Mile Island, a fact kept secret for 20 years. 1950—A B-50 Superfortress crashes in Lebanon, Ohio, …

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1982—FEMA pledges that even in a nuclear war, the mail will get through. 1979—The White Sox forfeit after explosives damage the field during Disco Demolition Night at Comiskey Park.  1973—A fire in St. Louis, Mo. destroys the service records of 16 to 18 million Army and Air Force veterans. 1917—After 30 hours in cattle cars without food or water, 1,286 striking copper miners are left stranded in the New Mexico desert. No relief comes until the next day. 1908—Birth of Milton Berle, first American transvestite on TV. 1892—The Pennsylvania militia arrives at Homestead, Pa. to protect Andrew Carnegie’s right to make a buck. 1872—Orangemen avoid …

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2003—Condi Rice lies about White House knowledge of Joe Wilson’s Niger investigation; Ari Fleischer outs Valerie Plame as a CIA officer; Karl Rove lies to Time about Wilson’s wife, Plame; and CIA head George Tenet takes the rap for the White House’s lies about Iraq buying uranium. 1991—A defective heater sets a loaded ammunition carrier afire at Camp Doha in Kuwait. It explodes, scattering bomblets; blasts and fires consume 102 other vehicles, including four M1A1 Abrams tanks. The fires injure 49, three die cleaning up the mess. 1958—Mildred and Richard Loving are rousted out of bed in Central Point, Virginia and arrested for being married …

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2007—China executes its Director of the State Food and Drug Administration for taking bribes that resulted in 40 deaths. 2001—A Phoenix FBI agent sends a memo to FBI HQ warning of “an inordinate number” of suspicious characters in local flight schools, possibly as part of a bin Laden plot. It’s ignored. 2001—CIA boss George Tenet tries to warn George Bush and Condi Rice about Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, but can’t get their attention. 1985—French secret police in the South Pacific blow up Greenpeace’s boat, Rainbow Warrior. 1972—Water being used to fight an arson fire destroys the U.S.S. Forrestal’s computers and nearly capsizes her. 1949—Pamir, …

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