Sat, April 9

2018—Other networks report that the FBI raided the office of President Trump’s lawyer; Fox reports that pandas—a non-native species, let’s recall—are aggressive and sex-crazed. 2006—“Scooter” Libby says “W” OK’d leaks of secret CIA intel. 1967—“We appeal to North Vietnam,” says a veteran-bought ad in the N.Y. Times, “if they really want peace, to stop bombing the United States—or else get the hell out of Vietnam!” 1961—The two top planners of the Bay of Pigs invasion, now eight days off, tell their boss Dick Bissell that it is bound to fail. He says do it anyway. 1927—In Massachusetts, death sentences issued against Nicolas Sacco and Bartolomeo …

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Fri, April 8

2018—Fox “News” accidentally broadcasts a graphic showing results of a poll: Fox is the least-trusted network. 1984—R. Nixon gripes, “It’s the media’s responsibility to examine the President with a microscope…but when they use a proctoscope, it’s going too far.” 1974—Hank Aaron breaks Ruth’s homer record; death threats ensue. 1956—USMC recruits are marched into a Parris Island swamp for disciplinary purposes. Six of them drown. 1952—With the steel industry adamantly opposing wage increases, Truman orders its nationalization. 1947—Frederick von Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, Milton Friedman, et al. issue a manifesto at Mont Pelerin which obfuscates their neo-feudal intent. 1947—After 18 days of excavation, Langley Collyer is …

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Thurs, April 7

2013—A new heel is inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame: bankrupt blowhard Donald J. Trump. 2003—U.S. troops take Baghdad. It is a great victory. 1990—Once and future Bush appointee John Poindexter is found guilty of multiple Iran/Contra felonies; he later wriggles out on appeal. 1972—’Nam vet Richard McCoy, Jr. hijacks a 727 with a toy grenade and an empty pistol, then parachutes out the back with $500K. A National Guard chopper pilot, McCoy is arrested days later while searching for himself. 1970—California’s Governor Reagan announces his highly nuanced position on student demonstrations: “If it takes a bloodbath, let’s get it over with.” 1967—In …

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Wed, April 6

2016—For each of the 29 miners killed in his death trap, coal mine owner Don Blankenship is sentenced to serve 12.5 days in jail. 2009—A year before it blows up, BP’s Deepwater Horizon gets relief from oppressive federal over-regulation. 1992—Donald E. Harding gasps, moans, and makes obscene hand gestures for five minutes before dying in Arizona’s gas chamber. 1977—“If the president does it,” Richard Nixon tells David Frost, “that means it’s not illegal.” 1968—Oakland police shoot it out with the Black Panthers. Bobby Hutton, 18 and unarmed, is killed. 1967—Knocked overboard three miles off North Vietnam, U.S. sailor Doug Hegdahl is saved by fishermen. Two …

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Tues, April 5

2014—Jack Kimball, ex-Chairman of N.H.’s GOP, calls upon Arizona’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio to put President Obama “in an orange suit…and drag his butt out of that White House.” 2010—W.Va.’s non-union Upper Big Branch coal mine explodes, killing 29 miners. After a year in prison, its owner, Don Blankenship, will run for the U.S. Senate as a Republican. 2006—Texans in Waco boo Bill Nye the science guy for saying the Bible’s wrong to say the Moon emits light. 1995—Sen. Bob Smith [R-N.H.] presciently asks, “How do you stop an elephant if it goes berserk on the grounds of the Capitol?” Alas, his motion to ban pachyderms …

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Mon, April 4

1989—In her Porsche, reaching for her cellphone while speeding to the bank she owns, Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton hits and kills Oleta Hardin, a 50 year-old Arkansas cannery worker. Walton is not charged. 1984—Congress nixes Contra funding. President Reagan sells arms to the Ayatollah to make up the difference. 1975—Operation Babylift begins with a C-5A flight out of Tan Son Nhut. It crashes into a nearby rice paddy killing 154, including 78 kids. 1970—On the National Mall, 50,000 followers of a radio televangelist hold a “March for Victory,” protesting the Vietnamization of the Vietnam War. 1968—Martin Luther King, Jr. is murdered in Memphis, perhaps by …

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