Volume 270 | No. 21

1984—The Miami Herald exposes Rex 84, a gummint plan to jail thousands of citizens if they get too unruly. 1968—Khe Sanh, where 737 Marines died in a 78-day siege, is abandoned. 1968—Congress tramples on the First Amendment while falsely claiming it’s somehow “protecting” the flag. 1960—Isabel “Dimples” Cooper, 46, is buried in Culver City, Calif., a suicide. The former showgirl had become the mistress of Gen. “Dugout Doug” MacArthur in Manila in 1930, but her later Hollywood career had stalled. 1950—Ill-trained, poorly equipped, and outnumbered, Task Force Smith is decimated by North Koreans at Osan. Gen. “Dugout Doug” MacArthur blames the troops for his loss. …

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1970—At “Honor America” day in D.C., Billie Graham and Bob Hope preach and joke, protestors smoke pot atop a truck shoved into the Reflecting Pool, and neo-Nazis snarl and jeer. 1951—In Madison, Wisc., 99.2 percent decline to sign a petition containing excerpts from the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights. 1947—The Boozefighters, a subset of “The Greatest Generation®,” take over Hollister, Calif. Three days of debauchery inspire The Wild One and spawn a generation of poseurs. 1924—Four thousand Klansmen march in Long Branch, New Jersey. 1905—U.S. Sen. John H. Mitchell [R-Ore.] is found guilty in a complex swindle: drunkards got government land, to which …

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1993—In just leather jacket, dog collar, and jockstrap, punk rocker G.G. Allin is laid to rest at St. Rose Cemetery in his hometown, Littleton, N.H. 1988—The USS Vincennes, in Iranian waters, shoots down an Iranian airliner ascending within a commercial air corridor; 290 civilians die. 1979—President Carter OKs covert aid to the mujahideen, despite Z. Brzezinski’s warning it will spur a Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. 1971—R. Nixon tells B. Haldeman, “Jews are all through the government…you can’t trust the bastards.” 1894—President Grover Cleveland sends Federal troops to Chicago to break up the Pullman Strike. 1883—Happy B’day F. Kafka. 1863—Portsmouth-born Benjamin F. Falls captures a flag …

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2020—Fugitive Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s accomplice, is arrested—in Bradford, N.H. Of course. 2003—George W.[MD] Bush says, “There are some who feel that the conditions are such that they can attack us [in Iraq]. My answer is, bring ’em on.” 1982—’Nam vet “Lawn Chair Larry” Walters, 33, ascends to 16,000 feet in a balloon-powered lawn chair. 1980—The Supreme Court rules that OSHA must consider corporate profits when protecting employees’ health. 1976—The Supreme Court rules it’s neither cruel nor unusual for the government to kill certain people. 1967—The U.S.M.C., during Operation Buffalo near Con Thien, has its deadliest day in ’Nam: “the 1/9” loses 84 KIA, 190 …

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2024—SCOTUS discovers an overlooked “Get Out of Jail Free” card in the Constitution for presidents. 2020—“I think we are going to be very good with the coronavirus,” says the Oaf in the Oval, “at some point, that’s going to sort of just disappear.” 1981—Irish Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich descends in a helicopter for a mass on London’s Clapham Common, bearing the head of Oliver Plunkett. 1973—With the U.S. military draft now ended, the ranks will henceforth be replenished by economic coercion. 1968—A DC-8 carrying 214 U.S. soldiers to Vietnam strays into Soviet airspace and lands in the USSR. 1942—Sturgeon torpedoes Montevideo Maru, unaware Aussie POWs …

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2014—The Supreme Court rules in Hobby Lobby that people who are corporations have religious rights, too. 2009—Oil futures prices zoom when a trader on an epic drunk makes an unauthorized 7 million barrel trade. 2003—The Army Times reports that the Bush administration wants to cut combat and family-separation pay for troops in combat zones. 1984—GOP Chairman: “Put Ronald Reagan’s face on Mt. Rushmore.” 1982—With help from Ollie North, FEMA promulgates Rex 84, a plan to suspend the Constitution and put dissidents in concentration camps. 1980—The Supreme Court rules that a woman’s right to a federally-funded abortion is nullified by the religious beliefs of complete strangers. …

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