Sat, Feb 27

2019—“I fear that if [Trump] loses the election in 2020,” says his ex-lawyer Michael Cohen, “there will never be a peaceful transition of power.” 2014—Senate Republicans block a bill to fund veterans health care because it would cost too much. 2001—Rep. David Vitter [R-La.] skips a House vote honoring 28 Desert Storm KIAs to take a call from the D.C. Madam. 1975—The FDA recalls a batch of 1,241 GE pacemakers—after they’ve all been implanted. 1973—The American Indian Movement occupies Wounded Knee. 1970—The New York Times reports that the U.S. Army no longer conducts illegal domestic surveillance; untrue then, and now. 1968—Walter Cronkite says on the …

Read more

Fri, Feb 26

2020—“Within a couple of days, it’s going to be down to close to zero. That’s a pretty good job we’ve done.” 2019—Wawarsing, N.Y. cop Harold Nunuvero leaps a fence to escape a charging fox, trips, falls, and shoots himself in the bulletproof vest. 2015—Sen. James Inhofe [R–Okla.] proves global warming is a hoax—or perhaps something else—by brandishing a snowball in the Senate. 2003—Saddam Hussein tells interviewer Dan Rather he would like to debate George W.[MD] Bush on TV. 1993—A truck bomb explodes beneath the World Trade Center in NYC; 6 are dead, 1,000 injured. 1991—George Herbert [Hoover] Walker Bush admits the U.S. has been supporting …

Read more

Thurs, Feb 25

2011—“[A]ny future Defense Secretary who advises the President to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should have his head examined,” says Defense Sec. Gates. 2003—Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki warns that Donald Rumsfeld’s plan to occupy Iraq dramatically underestimates troop requirements. 1968—“I do not believe Hanoi can hold up under a long war,” says Gen. William Westmoreland. 1953—Ike advises vigilance, lest communist teachers sneak propaganda into math problems. 1913—The IWW’s Paterson, N.J. strike begins; Concord, N.H.’s Elizabeth Gurley Flynn helps organize. 1899—Londoner Edwin Sewell, 31, is the first driver to die in a wreck. …

Read more

Wed, Feb 24

2001—“My plan reduces the national debt, and fast,” says G.W.[MD] Bush, “…economists worry that we’re going to run out of debt to retire.” 1989—On United Airlines Flight 811 from Honolulu to New Zealand, nine are sucked out a hole in the plane. 1988—Larry Flynt’s right to portray Jerry Falwell losing his virginity to his mother in an outhouse while intoxicated is upheld by SCOTUS. 1988—At 1:17 a.m., Capitol police carry Sen. Robert Packwood (R-Ore.) into the Senate chamber feet first to make up a quorum. 1942—Turned away from Istanbul, MV Struma, a decrepit hulk carrying 791 Jewish refugees, is torpedoed by a Soviet sub. Sole …

Read more

Tues, Feb 23

2016—GOP Senators deny Obama’s Supreme Court nominee a hearing. 2008—Because one maintenance crew fails to warn another that humid air confuses its sensors, a  $1.4 billion B-2 bomber crashes in Guam. 2004—Rod Paige, U.S. Sec. of Education, calls the nation’s largest teachers union a “terrorist organization.” 1974—Days after presiding over his paper’s 100th birthday, and owing mobsters thousands, Oakland Tribune owner and ex-Sen. William Knowland (R-Calif.) shoots himself dead. 1971—Lt. William Calley confesses to mass murder, and says his CO, Capt. Ernest Medina, ordered it. 1942—The huge [356-foot] Japanese submarine I-17 fires more than a dozen 5.5 inch rounds at the Richmond oil refinery near Santa …

Read more

Mon, Feb 22

2006—Clarence Thomas asks a question—the last one for 10 years. 2004—A Pentagon document leaks: climate change may spell doom. 1994—The FBI arrests a spy: CIA officer Aldrich Ames. 1974—Samuel Byck, planning to crash an airliner into the White House, carelessly shoots the pilot before takeoff. He’s then shot dead, too. 1967—Operation Junction City begins in Vietnam—largest U.S. offensive operation of the War. 1966—Barry Bondhus dumps human digestive byproduct on draft files in Elk River, Minn. He gets 14 months. 1965—The New York Times calls the late Malcolm X “an extraordinary and twisted man [who turned] many true gifts to evil purposes.” 1965—Gen. Westmoreland asks LBJ …

Read more