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2013—A new heel is inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame: bankrupt blowhard Donald J. Trump. 2003—U.S. troops take Baghdad. It is a great victory. 1990—Once and future Bush appointee John Poindexter is found guilty of multiple Iran/Contra felonies; he later wriggles out on appeal. 1972—’Nam vet Richard McCoy, Jr. hijacks a 727 with a toy grenade and an empty pistol, then parachutes out the back with $500K. A National Guard chopper pilot, McCoy is arrested days later while searching for himself. 1970—California’s Governor Reagan announces his highly nuanced position on student demonstrations: “If it takes a bloodbath, let’s get it over with.” 1967—In …

Read moreFri, Apr 7

2016—For each of the 29 miners killed in his death trap, coal mine owner Don Blankenship is sentenced to serve 12.5 days in jail. 2009—A year before it blows up, BP’s Deepwater Horizon gets relief from oppressive federal over-regulation. 1992—Donald E. Harding gasps, moans, and makes obscene hand gestures for five minutes before dying in Arizona’s gas chamber. 1977—“If the president does it,” Richard Nixon tells David Frost, “that means it’s not illegal.” 1968—Oakland police shoot it out with the Black Panthers. Bobby Hutton, 18 and unarmed, is killed. 1967—Knocked overboard three miles off North Vietnam, U.S. sailor Doug Hegdahl is saved by fishermen. Two …

Read moreThurs, Apr 6

2014—Jack Kimball, ex-Chairman of N.H.’s GOP, calls upon Arizona’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio to put President Obama “in an orange suit…and drag his butt out of that White House.” 2010—W.Va.’s non-union Upper Big Branch coal mine explodes, killing 29 miners. After a year in prison, its owner, Don Blankenship, will run for the U.S. Senate as a Republican. 2006—Texans in Waco boo Bill Nye the science guy for saying the Bible’s wrong to say the Moon emits light. 1995—Sen. Bob Smith [R-N.H.] presciently asks, “How do you stop an elephant if it goes berserk on the grounds of the Capitol?” Alas, his motion to ban pachyderms …

Read moreWed, Apr 5

1989—In her Porsche, reaching for her cellphone while speeding to the bank she owns, Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton hits and kills Oleta Hardin, a 50 year-old Arkansas cannery worker. Walton is not charged. 1984—Congress nixes Contra funding. President Reagan sells arms to the Ayatollah to make up the difference. 1975—Operation Babylift begins with a C-5A flight out of Tan Son Nhut. It crashes into a nearby rice paddy killing 154, including 78 kids. 1970—On the National Mall, 50,000 followers of a radio televangelist hold a “March for Victory,” protesting the Vietnamization of the Vietnam War. 1968—Martin Luther King, Jr. is murdered in Memphis, perhaps by …

Read moreTues, Apr 4

2014—Sen. Jerry Moran [R-Kan.], whose top contributor is Koch Industries, reads into the Congressional Record a Wall Street Journal op-ed in which Charles Koch defends his right to spend millions buying elections. 2004—Asked to name his biggest mistake, George W.[MD] Bush is unable to supply an answer. 2003—U.S. Marines cross the Tigris River on their way to Baghdad. 1996—Ted “Unabomber” Kaczynski is arrested in his Montana cabin. 1974—Hit by 148 tornadoes, 13 states lose 315 people; 5,484 are injured. 1973—The first mobile phone call is made, on a 2.4 lb. device, by a Motorola employee to a rival at AT&T. 1968—“I may not get there …

Read moreMon, Apr 3

2014—In McCutcheon v. FEC, the Supreme Court rules that rich folks deserve to have more influence in elections than the unwashed proletariat. 1982—U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Jeanne Kirkpatrick dines at the Argentine embassy hours after Argentina invades the Falklands. 1970—Massachusetts passes a law stating its citizens may not be forced to fight an undeclared war. 1969—President Dwight D. Eisenhower is buried in an $80 G.I. coffin. 1969—Chicago riots are quelled by National Guard troops. 1963—Martin Luther King, Jr. leads a voter registration drive in Birmingham. Police Chief “Bull” Connor responds with dogs and fire hoses. 1958—San Francisco columnist Herb Caen introduces his readers and …

Read moreSun, Apr 2