Sat, June 5

2013—News outlets reveal that the NSA, under a Top Secret court order, has been Hoovering™ up the phone records of millions of Americans. 2008—Despite Mayoral objections and a lack of public hearings, Blackwater opens a training facility in San Diego; a judge says Blackwater’s a person whose rights mustn’t be violated. 2003—Two top New York Times editors resign in disgrace. Curiously, many more do not. 1989—One man, for a while, stops a line of tanks in Tiananmen Square. 1976—In Idaho, the $100 million federal Teton Dam fails, killing 14 and causing $2 billion in damages. 1969—Taken three weeks earlier, at a cost of 72 American …

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Fri, June 4

2017—It’s the last “Last Call” at Portsmouth’s Press Room. 2006—A Ukrainian man enters the lion cage at the Kiev zoo, saying “God will save me, if he exists.” He does not. 2004—Marvin Heemeyer destroys the Granby, Colo. Town Hall, the mayor’s home, and 11 other buildings with his home-made armored bulldozer because “God has asked me to do this.” Then he shoots himself. 2003—Feds get tough on white collar crime, i.e., Martha Stewart. 1989—The Peoples Liberation Army kills thousands at Tiananmen Square. 1963—Allen Ginsberg visits Saigon to assess the political situation. 1962—A failing Thor rocket is blown up over the South Pacific; the first U.S. …

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Thurs, June 3

2009—New Hampshire becomes the first state to legalize same-sex marriage without a court order. 2002—Egypt says it warned the U.S., a week before 9/11, that al-Qaeda was about to strike the U.S. 1983—In Medina, N.D., “Greatest Generation” veteran, Posse Comitatus co-founder, and anti-tax crank Gordon Kahl dies in a shootout with the FBI, having slain five U.S. Marshals. 1980—A failed 46-cent computer chip briefly convinces NORAD that 220 Soviet missiles are incoming. 1974—Brown & Williamson tests a cigarette blended to smell like pot. 1969—In the South China Sea, a navigational mistake takes the destroyer U.S.S. Evans under the bow of the carrier HMAS Melbourne. The …

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Wed, June 2

2016—Two sisters at air shows watch as planes crash: Cindy Estevane-Villavicencio in Colorado and Kristyn Lockwood in Georgia; a Thunderbird pilot lives, a Blue Angel dies. 2002—The CIA admits to Congress—in a classified document, to avoid undue alarm—it had tracked one 9/11 hijacker months earlier than it had previously admitted. 1999—The Virginian-Pilot reports that evangelist Pat Robertson has had “extensive dealings” with Liberian war criminal Charles Taylor. 1976—Don Bolles, investigative reporter for the Arizona Republic, is mortally injured by a bomb under his car. Two guys take falls. 1972—Alfred W. McCoy explains to Congress that top South Vietnamese officials, the CIA, and the Mafia are …

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Tues, June 1

2005—Having wrecked Iraq, Paul Wolfowitz turns to the World Bank. 2002—George W.[MD] Bush announces at West Point that we’ll attack pre-emptively if he feels like it. 1980—Ted Turner launches CNN—the 24-hour news cycle has begun. 1971—The N.Y. Times swallows Chuck Colson’s bait: a “vets group” he created says that it backs the war. 1967—Disgruntled vets form Vietnam Veterans Against the War. 1954—The AEC pulls the security clearance of Manhattan Project boss J. Robert Oppenheimer. 1950—Maine’s Margaret C. Smith asks fellow Republicans to renounce the “Four Horsemen of Calumny–Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear.” She is duly punished by them. 1923—Maine Gov. Percival P. Baxter orders state …

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Mon, May 31

2020—Irene Triplett, the last recipient of a Civil War pension (via her pop), dies at 90 in Wilkesboro, N.C. 2009—Dr. George Tiller, ushering in a Wichita, Kansas church, is shot dead to uphold the sanctity of life. 2007—New Hampshire becomes the first state to honor same-sex unions without court intervention. 2005—Ex-FBI official Mark Felt admits he is “Deep Throat.” 1989—House Speaker Jim Wright, as he is hounded from that office, calls for an end to “mindless cannibalism.” 1921—A Black WW I veteran in Tulsa refuses a demand to surrender his pistol. During a struggle it fires; a massive “race war” ensues. 1921—The mistrial of Sacco …

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