Volume 265 | No. 7

1986—In San Diego, Cara Evelyn Knott is strangled by on-duty Highway Patrolman Craig Alan Peyer. 1981—Supreme Court Associate Justice William H. Rehnquist checks into a hospital to kick his Placidyl™ habit and end the hallucinations. 1953—Mass. bans EC Comics’ version of “The Night Before Christmas.” Illustrated by Will Elder, it features a just-divorced Santa driving a Cadillac sled and giving away poison. 1900—Carrie Nation hatchets-up her first saloon, at the Carey Hotel, in Wichita, Kan. 1895—In Bill Curtis’s St. Louis saloon, William “Billy” Lyons foolishly—and fatally—grabs “Stagger Lee” Shelton’s brand new Stetson hat. 1827—Georgia proclaims “the lands of Georgia belong to her absolutely. The Indians …

Read more

2002—Americans learn a new euphemism from the Washington Post: “extraordinary rendition” means kidnapping and torture. 1996—From a pool of 1,500 candidates, the press selects JonBenet Ramsey as the most important child murdered in the U.S. this year. 1991—The Supreme Soviet meets one last time and dissolves the USSR. 1971—Disgruntled Vietnam veterans occupy the Statue of Liberty. 1969—Having fought a shifting cargo of bombs, missiles, and mines for nine days in heavy seas, the crew of the freighter S.S. Badger State abandons ship in mid-Pacific after a bomb explodes and blows a hole in the hull. Out of 40 crewmen, 11 survive. 1966—Time Magazine names “The …

Read more

1989—Romania celebrates Christmas and freedom by putting former President Nicolae Ceauşescu and his wife Elena before a firing squad. 1956—In Birmingham, Ala., civil rights activist Fred Shuttlesworth survives the bombing of his home. 1951—In Mims, Fla., a bomb explodes under the home of NAACP leaders Harry T. and Harriette Moore on the night of their 25th anniversary. Both die; no one is indicted; the state concludes 55 years later that four long-dead Klansmen did it. 1946—Demonstrators at the White House demand the release of jailed conscientious objectors. 1914—German and British troops leave trenches, sing Christmas carols, shake hands, and share smokes. 1868—President Andy Johnson unconditionally …

Read more

2003—Responding to “credible intel,” Mike Hayden tells his British counterpart to take over his NSA duties if al-Qaeda nukes D.C. on Xmas. 1992—George Herbert [Hoover] Walker Bush pardons Caspar “Cap” Weinberger, Bob McFarlane, and 4 other Iran-Contra creeps, coincidentally protecting his own sorry self. 1979—The Soviet Army enters Afghanistan to prop up the Marxist government. Oops. They correct their mistake after just nine years. 1971—Her airliner having fallen apart after being hit by lightning two miles above the Amazon, Juliane Koepcke, 17, falls into the jungle. She survives with minor injuries. 1963—Top CIA counterspy and Friend-of-the-Mob James Jesus Angleton shuts down the Agency’s investigation of …

Read more

2004—NASA reports that the asteroid Apophis has one chance in 233 of hitting Earth in 2029. 1994—Tipped off by a Boston FBI agent that he’s about to be arrested, James “Whitey” Bulger takes a powder. He’s on the lam for 16.5 years. 1988—The FCC bans indecency on radio and TV; somehow, though, they still report on war and politics. 1986—The airplane Voyager completes its nonstop circumnavigation. 1981—Basement digging causes the Foye Building, next to the Portsmouth Athenæum, to partially collapse. 1971—With a million from the Mob in his pocket, President Nixon springs Jimmy Hoffa from federal prison; the Teamsters soon endorse Nixon. 1963—FBI officials begin …

Read more

2001—Richard Reid’s shoe-bomb fizzles, but all air passengers must now remove shoes before boarding. 1989—RIP Samuel Beckett. 1984—Asked for money on a New York subway, Bernhard Goetz responds with lead instead. Then he flees to New Hampshire. Of course. 1981—Ronald Reagan gives the poor 30 million lbs. of moldy cheese. 1974—Seymour Hersh exposes the CIA’s Operation Chaos in the New York Times: 10,000 Americans under illegal surveillance since 1967. 1967—The CIA hands LBJ the second of four reports on its illegal surveillance of anti-war activists. Because it, too, refutes his belief in foreign influence, he rejects it and demands another. 1944—With his 101st Airborne surrounded …

Read more