Volume 268 | No. 12

1985—A joint U.S./U.K./Saudi operation detonates a 440 lb. car bomb in Beirut; 83 innocent civilians die. The target—also innocent—is unscathed. 1983—Ronald Reagan runs the phrase “evil empire” up the flagpole. 1973—President Nixon gripes to Al Haig, “What the hell’s Agnew doing? He’s never spoken up once on this Goddamn [Watergate] thing.” 1971—The Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI breaks into the Bureau’s Media, Pa. office, obtaining 1,000+ documents revealing COINTELPRO. The Bureau fails to find the perps. [See 1956.] 1965—The first U.S. combat troops—U.S. Marines—hit the beach at Danang ready to fight. Vietnamese girls greet them with flowers. 1956—At a meeting of the National Security …

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1981—Stabbed at Disneyland, Mel C. Yorba becomes the Magic Kingdom’s first murder victim, because Disney employees feared the consequences if they called an ambulance. 1965—Civil rights marchers en route to Montgomery try to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. They’re mercilessly beaten by law enforcement officers and deputized goons. 1960—In front of the Union Leader building, JFK deftly paints the paper as irresponsible and its publisher as a liar. Next day he wins the primary. 1953—Newark, N.J. officials publicly burn allegedly lewd photos, movies, and books valued at $100,000. 1932—Dearborn, Mich. cops fire on Ford hunger marchers; five die. 1908—In Cincinnati, Mayor Mark Breith …

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2011—The Hooksett water treatment plant disgorges two million two-inch plastic discs into the Merrimack after heavy rains. By August they’re at Campobello Island and Rhode Island Sound, in 2014, the English Channel. 2007—Dick “Dick” Cheney’s Chief of Staff “Scooter” is found guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice. 2003—President George W.[MD] Bush claims Saddam Hussein has “biological and chemical agents” that move “every 12 to 24 hours…in vehicles…in residential neighborhoods.” 1991—President George Herbert [Hoover] Walker Bush claims that his defeat of Saddam Hussein has ushered in a “new world order.” 1981—President Reagan determines who to call upon at a press conference by drawing jelly beans …

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2007—In Bloomington, Ill., Dee Riddle is startled by a meteorite crashing through her bedroom window. 2003—Dixie Chick Natalie Maines says she’s ashamed that George W.[MD] Bush is a Texan. 2001—A Nor’easter begins which will dump 40 inches of snow on New Hampshire’s Rockingham County. 1963—Patsy Cline, singer of “I Fall to Pieces,” dies when her plane crashes. 1960—Alberto Korda takes “that photo” of Che Guevara. 1953—Car thief and armed robber Pearlie Miller, on the lam since an escape in 1948, on the FBI’s most wanted list for one day, is arrested at a diner in Somersworth, N.H. 1953—Everybody dies; this time, to the relief of …

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2001—Fox broadcasts a “Lone Gunman” show in which U.S. agents remotely hijack an airliner and try to crash it into the World Trade Center. 1987—Ronald Reagan admits trading arms to Iran for hostages. 1960—La Coubre, a French munitions ship, explodes in Havana harbor. Between 75 and 100 people die. CIA involvement is “suspected.” 1937—The UAW wins a sit-down strike in Flint, Mich. 1933—“We have nothing to fear,” says FDR, “but fear itself.” 1929—Oscar Stanton de Priest [R-Ill.] becomes the first African-American to take a seat in Congress since Reconstruction. 1917—In Congress, Sen. Harry Lane (D-Ore.) prepares to stab Ollie James (D-Ky.) in the neck if …

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