Volume 266 | No. 23

2016—Verrückt (German for “insane”), the world’s tallest waterslide, built in Kansas City by men who later admitted that they didn’t know what they were doing, and exempt from state licensing, decapitates the 10-year-old son of a Kansas state rep. 1974—Three GOP bigwigs tell Nixon he’s through. Len Garment talks him out of pardoning the Watergate conspirators. Nixon’s man Al Haig meets again in secret with with Jerry Ford. Move along; nothing to see here. 1964—Congress falls for the Gulf of Tonkin hoax. L.B.J. gets unprecedented and unconstitutional power. Sen. Wayne Morse (D-Ore.) votes no, saying “future generations will look with dismay and great disappointment upon …

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2016—“One of my proudest moments,” says Senator “Moscow Mitch” McConnell [R-Ky.], “was when I told President Obama, ‘You will not fill this Supreme Court vacancy.’” 2011—An RPG downs a Chinook in the Tangi Valley, killing all 38 on board­; 30 are Americans, the most to die in a single incident in Afghanistan. 2001—The CIA hands the President a report titled “Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in U.S.” He ignores it. 1991—Tim Berners-Lee introduces the World Wide Web to the world. 1970—Disneyland closes as 300 Yippies smoke pot, chant V.C. slogans & demand freedom for Mickey Mouse. 1957—Carol Burnett becomes an overnight sensation by singing on …

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2011—S&P lowers the U.S.’s credit rating because the GOP says it might not let the government pay its bills. 2007—On Lake Winnipesaukee, the President of France, clad only in swim trunks, jumps into the boat of AP’s ace photographer Jim Cole and berates him for doing his job. 2004—“Our enemies,” says George W.[MD] Bush, “never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.” 1981—Ronald Reagan fires 12,700 air traffic controllers. 1971—ITT makes a $200,000 “donation” to the GOP Convention. In return the Justice Department overlooks ITT violations of antitrust laws. 1969—The Army says eight Green Berets are …

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2003—Lightning strikes a warehouse in Bardstown, Ky. In the fire that results, 19,000 barrels release a flaming river: 800,000 gallons of Jim Beam. Thousands of fish die as high winds whip up a 100-foot firenado. 1992—Republicans re-nominate the Bush/Quayle ticket. [Snicker.] 1991—The captain and officers of the sinking Oceanos abandon the ship—and its passengers. Entertainers organize a successful rescue of all aboard. 1987—The FCC jettisons the Fairness Doctrine, declaring it “restricts the journalistic freedom of broadcasters.” 1964—The U.S.S. Maddox and U.S.S. Turner Joy report a second torpedo attack in Gulf of Tonkin. There are no casualties; nor is there any damage. Defense Secretary McNamara withholds …

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1981—Air traffic controllers give Ronald Reagan his cue to grandstand. 1980—Ronald Reagan touts “states’ rights” in his first post-convention speech—two miles from the site where, 19 years earlier, three murdered civil rights workers were buried. 1971—New Hampshire man Alan Shepard hits a golf ball on the moon. 1966—RIP Lenny Bruce, prosecuted to death at the age of 40. 1962—Given a huge shot of LSD by a CIA subcontractor, Tusko the elephant, “pride of the Oklahoma City Zoo,” keels over, defecates, and shudders. Big doses of anti-psychotics and tranquilizers don’t help; he dies. 1961—Byron Rickards, piloting a Boeing 707 over New Mexico, is skyjacked by father …

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2000—The GOP picks George W.[MD] Bush to preside, and Dick “Dick” Cheney to run the country. 1993—A short circuit sends a self-destruct command to a Titan IV rocket which blows up over the Pacific destroying $1 billion in spy satellites. 1990—Iraq invades Kuwait. 1964—The U.S.S. Maddox, in North Vietnamese territorial waters to support covert South Vietnamese attacks, fires on North Vietnamese torpedo boats. When they fire back, Maddox reports an “unprovoked” attack. 1946—Disgruntled veterans in Athens, Tenn. prevail over a crooked Democratic machine, thanks to several well-placed dynamite blasts. 1943—Treblinka prisoners revolt. Only 40 survive, but they close the camp. 1943—The nimble American PT boat …

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