Sat, Oct 8

2004—American warplanes miss Abu Musab al Zarqawi but kill 13 people at a wedding instead. 1991—Speaker of the House Tom Foley [D-Wash.] announces that the House’s sergeant-at-arms will no longer fix traffic tickets for Members. 1985—Dining at the White House, President Reagan “praises incessantly” his guest’s most recent work of art: Rambo: First Blood, Part II. 1974—The Franklin National Bank collapses, undermined by Mafioso Michele Sindona, a close buddy of President Nixon’s Treasury Secretary David Kennedy. 1969—A three-day riot branded “Days of Rage” begins in Chicago. 1968—Washington, D.C. riots after police shoot a Black man. 1967—Ernesto “Che” Guevara is captured by Bolivian troops led by …

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Fri, Oct 7

2020—The nation is mesmerized during the Vice Presidential debate, as a fly takes a stroll on Mike Pence’s hair. 2016—The Washington Post releases a videotape on which the GOP Presidential candidate brags about grabbing women by their genitals. Hours later hacked emails of his opponent’s campaign chairman are released. 2011—On her 62nd birthday, Wal-Mart heir Alice Walton gets her 2nd DWI, but no charges are filed. She killed a woman in a 1989 car wreck, but no charges were filed then, either. 2004—George W.[MD] Bush and Dick “Dick” Cheney do the bait-and-switch: so what if Saddam didn’t have WMDs—he cheated on oil-for-food. 2001—“Operation Enduring Freedom” …

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Thurs, Oct 6

2004—The top U.S. arms inspector in Iraq says there is no evidence Saddam Hussein had tried to manufacture any WMDs after 1991. 1976—Cubana Flight 455 is bombed over Barbados, killing 73. Miami resident Luis Posada Carriles is wanted in Cuba and Venezuela for the crime, but the U.S. won’t extradite him. 1970—The replacement statue of a cop in Chicago’s Haymarket Square is blown to bits by the Weathermen. 1969—The statue of a cop in Chicago’s Haymarket Square is blown to bits by the Weathermen. 1961—President Kennedy recommends that, in case of nuclear war, American families get ready to live for a while in holes in …

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Wed, Oct 5

2017—The Senate confirms Steve King—who, in 1972, on ex-AG John Mitchell’s orders, restrained his wife Martha Mitchell as she was forcibly injected with tranquilizers to keep her from talking to the press—as Ambassador to the Czech Republic. 2010—“Fox and Friends” reports that Los Angeles has bought $1 billion worth of jet packs for its Police and Fire Departments. They cribbed the story from the Weekly World News. 2003—Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard learn the hard way: the Alaskan grizzly bears they’ve been hanging with are not vegans. 2002—George W.[MD] Bush tells N.H. Guardsmen that Saddam could inflict “massive and sudden horror” on the U.S. It’s …

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Tues, Oct 4

2017—America learns the hard way it has 800 troops in Niger: four Green Berets are killed in an ambush. 2004—SpaceShipOne, Burt Rutan’s tourist rocket, makes it to space a second time, winning the Ansari X Prize. 2002—Knight-Ridder: “The White House and the Pentagon…are pressuring intelligence analysts to highlight information that supports Bush’s Iraq policy.” One paper runs the story. 2001—George W.[MD] Bush orders the NSA to spy on Americans without getting warrants, i.e., illegally. 1986—Dan Rather is attacked on the streets of New York by two men yelling, “What’s the frequency, Ken?” 1971—Pres. Nguyen Van Thieu, unopposed, is reelected. He says it’s “an achievement for …

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Mon, Oct 3

2009—Combat Outpost Keating, in Nuristan, badly-sited and scheduled for abandonment, is mostly overrun by Taliban fighters who capture weapons and ammunition, leaving eight Americans dead and 27 wounded. 2006—Republicans in Congress try to “roll over” $20 million set aside for a celebration of victory in Iraq. 2003—The National Enquirer reports that Rush Limbaugh is being investigated for illegally procuring prescription opioids. 1993—Berlin, N.H. native Michael Durant’s helicopter is one of two shot down in the First Battle of Mogadishu. Durant, played by Ron Eldard in Black Hawk Down, survives. 1986—A fire breaks out aboard the Soviet missile sub K-219. The Commies blame an alleged collision …

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