Volume 270 | No. 14

2003—Newsweek publishes a poll saying 74 percent of Americans believe that the Bush administration has “a well thought-out military plan.” 1995—Rep. Dan Burton [R-Ind.] says the U.S. “should place an aircraft carrier off the coast of [land-locked] Bolivia and crop dust the coca fields.” 1973—Army Master Sergeant Max Beilke becomes the last U.S. combat soldier to leave Vietnam. He will die at the Pentagon, a civilian, on 9/11/01. 1972—In anticipation of a $100,000 “contribution” to the Nixon re-election campaign, the EPA eases up on enforcement at a lead smelter in Idaho. 1971—Lt. William Calley gets “life in prison” for 22 My Lai murders, i.e., three …

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2007—Phyllis Schlafly explains to Bates students that a married woman “has consented to sex, and I don’t think you can call it rape.” 2003—“The enemy we’re fighting [in Iraq],” General William S. Wallace admits, “is different from the one we’d war-gamed against.” 1979—After a stuck valve dumps too much coolant, an emergency cooling system kicks in, but it’s overridden by operators who fail to see a hidden indicator light. The nuclear reactor core at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania partially melts, releasing 43K curies. 1967—The RAF drops bombs on Torrey Canyon to mitigate an oil spill in the English Channel; most miss. 1920—Thirty-eight tornadoes in …

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2014—Receipts in hand, the UN accuses the U.S. of civil rights violations. 2003—Iraq “can really finance its own reconstruction and relatively soon,” U.S. Undersecretary for Defense Paul Wolfowitz tells Congress. “There’s a lot of money to pay for this that doesn’t have to be U.S. taxpayer money.” 1990—SCOTUS says it’s OK to limit corporate campaign spending—a flicker of sanity snuffed out in 2010. 1986—Congress slashes welfare while approving $100 million for a drug gang called “The Contras.” 1980—A bad weld drops the oil platform Alexander L. Kielland into the North Sea: of 212 aboard, 123 perish. 1964—History’s 2nd largest earthquake hits Anchorage; 115 die. 1956—Alleged …

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2021—Under a painting of a plantation, flanked by white men, Gov. Brian Kemp signs a law restricting voting. Rep. Park Cannon, who’s Black, is arrested and dragged from his office. 2006—Justice Antonin Scalia is photographed on the steps of a Boston church, making an obscene gesture. 1983—Bob “Bob Dole” Dole calls Ford, Carter, and Nixon “Hear no evil, see no evil, and evil.” 1982—Ground is broken in D.C. for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. 1972—Gen. John D. Lavelle loses two stars and command of the 7th Air Force for obeying Nixon’s secret orders and bombing North Vietnam. 1968—A dozen “Wise Men” finally tell LBJ it’s time …

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2003—Four Air Force generals get sacked after a massive rape scandal. 1997—Florida’s “Old Sparky” sets Pedro Medina on fire as it kills him. 1976—Execs at the Ford plant in Argentina begin doing the new military junta’s bidding. Work incentives include torture, kidnapping, & murder. 1971—For a $427,000 “contribution” towards Dick “Original Dick” Nixon’s re-election, three dairy co-ops get $600 million in milk price supports. 1966—“Of all the forms of inequality,” says MLK Jr., “injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” 1966—Fifteen WW II and Korean War veterans burn discharge papers in NYC to protest the Vietnam War. 1965—In Montgomery, Ala., 25,000 civil …

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2004—A-list broadcast journalists at a black-tie dinner crack up as President George W.[MD] Bush jokes about “his” failed search for WMDs. Less amused: families of the 691 GI’s killed to date in the war he began. 1989—Exxon’s environment policy is made clear by oil gushing through the hull of the Exxon Valdez. 1985—Shot by a Soviet sentry while peeping at an East German tank shed, U.S. Army Maj. Arthur D. Nicholson becomes what the Pentagon calls “the last casualty of the Cold War.” 1972—A gang of burglars breaks through the roof of the United California Bank’s vault in Laguna Niguel, Calif., in an effort to …

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