Volume 269 | No. 19

2005—Congress apologizes for having failed to pass 200 anti-lynching bills between 1882 and 1968. 1999—In Kosovo, British Lieut. Gen. Mike Jackson refuses NATO Commander Wesley Clark’s orders to take the Russian-occupied Pristina airport, saying, “I’m not going to start the Third World War for you.” 1983—Pioneer 10 exits the solar system. 1971—Because “The Pentagon Papers” cover only the Kennedy and Johnson years, Kissinger and Nixon have a good laugh in the Oval Office. 1968—A U.S. attack helicopter accidentally kills Saigon’s Chief of Police. 1966—The Supreme Court rules that cops can’t make you talk. 1944—News reports say Rep. Francis E. Walter (D-Penn.) gave FDR a letter-opener …

Read more

2000—The Energy Department admits that two hard drives holding top-secret data on nuclear weapons have been missing for over a month. 1991—White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu takes a government limousine from D.C. to New York City to attend a rare stamp auction. 1981—Failing to recognize the only Black person in his Cabinet, President Reagan, calls Housing Secretary Samuel Pierce “Mr. Mayor.” 1971—The Times begins publishing “The Pentagon Papers” on the morning of Tricia Nixon’s White House wedding. Dan Ellsberg and Howard Zinn, stoned, see “Butch Cassidy.” 1969—The Army Corps of Engineers stops the American Falls at Niagara. 1967—The Supreme Court rules interracial …

Read more

2018—The Supreme Court gives states another excuse—skipping an election—to purge voter rolls. 1995—In Claremont, N.H., Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich shake hands and pledge to reform lobbying and campaign financing. Yeah, right. 1990—The Supreme Court rules flag desecration laws are unconstitutional. 1984—The Supreme Court gives prosecutors a new loophole for using illegally-obtained evidence. 1963—In Saigon, motionless, burning, Thich Quang Duc bends history. 1962—John and Clarence Anglin, with Frank Morris, escape from Alcatraz. Maybe they drown, maybe not. 1929—Forget Article One, Clause 3 of the Constitution, says Congress, the House shall have 435 members. 1920—Republicans meeting in the original “smoke-filled room” select, to their discredit, Warren …

Read more

1990—British Airways pilot Tim Lancaster is sucked half-way out of Flight 5390 when its windshield blows out over Oxfordshire. The plane lands safely; Lancaster resumes flying. 1988—The Justice Dept. says “no entry” to a bike messenger in a T-shirt saying “Experts agree: Meese is a pig.” 1975—The Rockefeller Commission finds that the CIA’s CHAOS operation spied on 300,000 Americans and infiltrated political movements. 1968—The Supreme Court says cops can “stop and frisk” based on “reasonable suspicion.” [Or racist whim?] 1964—Muted by a tumor, weeks from death, Sen. Clair Engle [D-Calif.] points to his eye; his “aye” vote ends the filibuster of the Civil Rights Act. …

Read more

2023—The same U.S. ex-President is indicted again: 37 felonies for unlawful possession of national secrets. 2016—Donald Trump’s son, son-in-law, and campaign manager meet at Trump Tower with a whole slew of Russians with peculiar associations. 1989—James Watt, Ronald Reagan’s Interior Secretary, admits to a House committee that he was paid $400,000 for making a few phone calls on a topic about which he knew nothing. 1978—The Mormon Church drops its longstanding policy of excluding Black men from the priesthood. 1963—Winona, Miss. jail inmates do as cops say, nearly beating civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer to death. 1958—Auberon Waugh, a British writer, shakes the barrel …

Read more