Volume 267 | No. 5

2002—Donald Rumsfeld signs off on “Category III” interrogation techniques—namely, torture. 2001—Gen. Tommy Franks, working on catching Osama bin Laden, is told by Donald Rumsfeld to drop that and revise plans to attack Iraq. 1997—In New York, a lampost fatally stabs Macy’s Barney the Dinosaur balloon. Meanwhile, the Cat in the Hat knocks over a lampost, which then falls on two women, putting one in a month-long coma. 1969—At the 71st Evacuation Hospital in Pleiku, 100 soldiers fast on Thanksgiving to protest the war. 1965—The first Acid Test. 1953—“I knew it,” says 65 year-old Eugene O’Neill. “Born in a goddamn hotel room, dying in a hotel …

Read more

2000—Katherine Harris, Florida’s Secretary of State and, coincidentally, the Bush campaign’s state co-chair, declares Dubya the winner. 1975—George Gainous, son of a heroin importer, climbs the White House fence to ask for his father’s pardon. Arrested 90 minutes later while chatting with President Ford’s daughter Susan, he later says, “If [Ford] can pardon Nixon he can pardon my father.” 1973—Rose Mary Woods takes the fall for the 18½ minute gap. 1933—Thomas H. Thurmond and John M. Holmes are lynched in San Jose, Calif. Jackie Coogan—“Uncle Fester,” 30 years later—helps ready a rope. Judge Timothy Fitzpatrick says in his personal opinion, the mob “did a damned …

Read more

1997—In Plymouth, Mass., police serve Native American demonstrators a generous helping of pepper-spray. 1986—As Ed “Meese is a Pig” Meese confesses that profits from illegal arms sales to Iran went to Nicaraguan contras, a reluctant Ronald Reagan fires Lt. Col. Oliver North. 1974—Britain outlaws the IRA after two bombs kill 21 and injure over 100 in Birmingham. 1968—Death of Upton Sinclair, writer and media critic. 1955—The ICC bans racial segregation in interstate bus transportation; the ban is ignored, though, until Freedom Riders force the issue in 1961. 1950—Great Appalachian Storm winds hit 110 mph in Concord, N.H. 1947—For refusing to rat out their friends to …

Read more

2006—“The only way we can win,” says George W.[MD] Bush, “is to leave [Iraq] before the job is done.” 1979—The U.S. admits troops in ’Nam were hit by Agent Orange. 1976—Steven B. Williams rams a White House gate with his pickup truck at 25 mph. It doesn’t budge. 1971—Toting $200,000 in ransom cash, “D.B. Cooper” parachutes from a hijacked 727 over Washington State, into oblivion and America’s heart. 1965—The New York Times runs a full-page ad signed by 500 WW II and Korean War vets protesting escalation of the Vietnam War. 1963—Strip joint proprietor Jack Ruby, to spare Jackie Kennedy’s feelings, shoots Lee Harvey Oswald …

Read more

1981—R. Reagan signs a secret directive creating the [illegal] Contras. 1976—Jerry Lee Lewis is arrested outside Graceland for waving a pistol and demanding to see Elvis. 1970—A Lithuanian radio operator jumps from a Russian trawler onto the deck of the Coast Guard cutter Vigilant. Commander Ralph Eustis allows Soviet sailors to board the cutter and seize the radioman. 1958—On TV: Ron & Nancy Reagan in “A Turkey for the President.” 1946—To teach “a severe lesson”—namely, that Vietnam is ruled by the French—the cruiser Suffren shells the hell out of Haiphong, killing 6,000. So began the First Indochina War. 1936—In San Antonio, bluesman Robert Johnson begins …

Read more

2003—AP reports on JFK conspiracy theories, including one saying he orchestrated his own assassination. 2000—Two dozen well-dressed hooligans, many on the GOP’s payroll, intimidate Miami election officials into shutting down a Presidential recount. 1975—U.S.S. John F. Kennedy and U.S.S. Belknap collide in the night near Sicily. A two-hour fire aboard the Belknap stops 30 feet short of the nuclear weapons magazine. 1963—In Paris, a CIA man hands a lethal pen to a Cuban for use on Fidel Castro, at the behest of Bobby Kennedy. 1963—In Dallas, Texas, President John F. Kennedy is assassinated; at whose bidding is a matter of dispute. 1963—Testimony before a secret …

Read more