Sat, May 7

1999—A U.S. B-2 drops five “smart” bombs on the Chinese embassy in Belgrade: three dead, 27 wounded. 1998—Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan successfully quash an effort to regulate credit default swaps. 1992—Reporters reveal Ross Perot’s “concern” over U.S. POWs was mostly about Richard Nixon’s presidency. 1985—New York throws a ticker tape parade for 25,000 Vietnam veterans. Better late than never. 1970—Marine Sgt. Robert Phleger, 1st Force Recon, is killed in the night by a tiger in Quang Nam Province. 1955—Black voting activist Rev. George W. Lee is gunned down in Midnight, Miss. No charges are ever filed. 1954—The Viet Minh …

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Fri, May 6

2010—An imaginary bus bomb inspires panic in Portsmouth, N.H. 2010—A Londoner scamming from his parents’ basement gives The Invisible Hand of the Market™ jitters: the Dow drops nine pct. in five minutes. 1996—Missing for nine days, ex-CIA Director William Colby turns up in Chesapeake Bay, dead but remarkably fresh-looking, 20 feet from where searchers found his canoe eight days earlier. Verdict: a routine drowning. 1982—LAPD Chief Darryl Gates explains “some blacks [die in choke holds because] the veins or arteries do not open up as fast as they do in normal people.” 1978—In Chicago, First Lady Rosalynn Carter is photographed shaking hands with Polish Constitution …

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Thurs, May 5

1985—In Bitburg, Germany, Republican President Ronald Reagan lays a wreath at a cemetery full of Nazis. 1981—Bobby Sands dies of hunger in Maze Prison, defiant to the last. 1970—Jerry Rubin speaks at UNH. 1961—New Hampshire’s own Alan Shepard prays, “Please, dear God, don’t let me f__k up.” Prayer answered, he’s the 1st American in space. 1960—Gary Powers is a “civilian employed by Lockheed” piloting a “weather research plane,” says the U.S. 1955—U.S. TVs show a mock suburb complete with mannequins hit by a real nuke. The scorched, ragged figures are later displayed at J.C. Penney with a sign saying “This could be you.” 1945—The collier …

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Wed, May 4

1990—Six-inch flames shoot from Jesse Joseph Tafero’s head as Florida’s “Old Sparky” takes three jolts and seven minutes to kill him. 1989—U.S.M.C. Lieut. Col. Oliver North is convicted of four felonies in the Iran-Contra scandal, but a Congressional screw-up lets him skate. 1970—In Haymarket Square, Chicago, a new cop statue replaces one destroyed by a bomb months earlier. This one gets blown up, too, months later. 1970—Ohio National Guard troops shoot 13 unarmed students, killing four, at Kent State. 1961—The Freedom Rides begin throughout the south. 1942—The Battle of the Coral Sea begins. In four days 14 ships are sunk or damaged, 159 planes destroyed, …

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Tues, May 3

2020—Dolt #45 desecrates the Lincoln Memorial with a campaign event. 2016—Lindsey Graham tweets, “If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed…and we will deserve it.” 2016—After accusing Ted Cruz’s father of being tied to the JFK assassination, Donald Trump wins Indiana and clinches the GOP nomination. 2003—The Old Man of the Mountain is busted by the Law of Gravity. 1995—Alabama Governor “Fob” James brings back the chain gang. 1987—E. J. Dionne’s column quotes Sen. Gary Hart (D-Colo.): “Follow me around;” meanwhile, the Miami Herald reports that a woman (not his wife) spent the night in his D.C. townhouse. 1971—Cops in D.C. set a record: 7,000 …

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Mon, May 2

2011—After outliving the Administration of G.W.[MD] Bush, Osama bin Laden is whacked by its successor. 2006—With stereotypical inefficiency, state workers in Lucasville, Ohio jab Joseph Clark 19 times over 86 minutes to kill him by lethal injection[s]. 2003—Richard Perle, its architect, writes that the Iraq War “ended without the Arab world rising up against us, as the war’s critics feared, without the quagmire they predicted, without the heavy losses in house-to-house fighting they warned us to expect.” 1972—The good die young; J. Edgar Hoover does it at 77. 1971—John Dean revokes a permit and tells 40,000 protesters to leave D.C. Some comply, but many say, …

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