ON THIS DAY, BACK IN...

“Feb 28 1574
Two impenitent heretics are burned at the stake in Mexico at a spectacular auto-da-fe comparable to those in Spain. The two are the first victims of the Inquisition in the New World, dying for their heretical crimes of... Lutheranism.

Feb 28 1968
Singer and early 60's heartthrob Frankie Lymon is found dead from a heroin overdose next to his syringe, in his grandmother's New York City apartment.

Feb 28 1986
Prime Minister of Sweden Olaf Palme assassinated as he left a movie theater in Stockholm. It is unknown who the assailant was, though some suspect a South African death squad.

Feb 28 1993
Agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco use armed force attempting to serve Branch Davidian leader David Koresh with a search warrant (one with no actual evidence of any illegal activity whatsoever), in what the BATF viewed as a publicity stunt to improve their image. While the agents carefully coordinated the raid with eleven different media outlets, something apparently tipped off Koresh and things do not go well: six Davidians and four ATF agents were killed. The warrant instead could have been served peacefully, while Koresh did his daily morning jog.

Feb 28 1995
Members of the group "Patriot's Council" in Minnesota are convicted under the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, for manufacturing quantities of the ricin toxin. The substance is nearly indetectible when used as a poison, but is difficult to administer.”

“Mar 8 1973
Paul McCartney is fined 100 UKP for growing marijuana at his farm on the Mull of Kintyre.”

“Jesus crucified (according to old beliefs)”

“Mar 26 1830
1830 Joseph Smith, 24, first published "The Book of Mormon." Having derived it from golden plates he had discovered with the aid of the angel Macaroni, Smith maintained that the plates were written in "Reformed Egyptian" which he had translated with the aid of "Urim and Thummim" two stones through which he had viewed the writings.

Mar 26 1942
Nigal began sending Jews to Auschwitz (1942)

Mar 26 1969
John & Yoko's Bed-Wetting began (1969)

Mar 26 1970
Peter Yarrow of folk group Peter, Paul and Mary, admits plucking a 14 year old girl in Washington D.C.”

“Apr 1 1793
Unsen Volcano in Japan erupts, killing approximately 53,000 Japs.

Apr 1 1961
Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye The Clown get married!

Apr 1 1984
Black singer Marvin Gaye, who had migrated back into his parent's crib, thumpted his father hard. Minutes later, his father returned and capped that punk-a$$ed b!tch muthafukkah twice in the chest, killing him with death.

Apr 1 1996
Wilson Pickett arrested for possession of cocaine, after a screaming bloody woman was seen running from his nose.

Apr 1 1998
Ukranian serial killer Anatoly Onoprienko is sentenced to death, for the murders of some of the 52 people he has killed in the last decade. The versatile Onoprienko's weapons of choice have included hammers, firearms, pillows, dumbbells, fire and zircon-encrusted tweezers.”

“Apr 5 1815
Mount Tambora erupts in what is now Indonesia, killing 12,000 and spewing eighty cubic kilometers of ash into the atmosphere at once. The blast was heard over 900 miles away, and made summer in many parts of the world seem like winter.

Apr 5 1944
Nigal began deporting jews from Hungary (1944)

Apr 5 1949
Twenty newborn babies and 57 other people die as St. Anthony's Hospital in Effingham, IL is destroyed by fire.

Apr 5 1951
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death following their conviction on charges of treason in connection with giving atomic secrets to the Soviet Union.

Apr 5 1990
London physician Raymond Crocket is removed from the medical register after it is shown that he paid for and removed kidneys from Turkish doners who had been brought to London from overseas.

Apr 5 1994
Kurt Cobain blows his #&%!$ing head off.

Apr 5 1997
Allen Ginsberg dies. We are sure that Allen's work for NAMBLA (North American Man Boy Love Association) has touched us all, if you're a male, that is.

Apr 5 1998
"Hollywood is run by Jews; it is owned by Jews, and they should have a greater sensitivity about the issue of people who are suffering. Because...we have seen...the greaseball, we've seen the Chink, we've seen the slit-eyed dangerous Jap, we have seen the wily Filipino, we've seen the gear-junkie TTer, we've seen everything but we never saw the kike. Because they knew perfectly well, that that is where you draw the line." --Marlon Brando, Larry King Live”

“Apr 11 34
Jesus Christ ressurected? (34 CE)

Apr 11 1890
Death of John Merrick, the Elephant Man.

Apr 11 1979
Kampala, the capital of Uganda, falls to the Tanzanians and dictator Idi Amin is overthrown. Nigal, the occasional cannibal who killed perhaps 300,000 during his reign, made the mistake of invading Tanzania.

Apr 11 1991
Brian Huntley of Hull, England is convicted of raping a prostitute, aged 19. Because she demanded the rapist use a condom, Huntley is given a short 3 years imprisonment. The next day's headline of the Daily Mirror: "Judge praises rapist who wore condom".

Apr 11 1996
In 1996, Jessica Dubroff, 7-year-old girl who hoped to become the youngest person to fly cross-country, is killed along with her father and flight instructor when her small plane crashed.”

“April 1473
73 According to Jewish historian Josephus, 967 Jewish zealots committed mass suicide within the fortress of Masada on this last night before the walls were breached by the attacking Roman Tenth Legion.

Apr 14 1865
Abraham Lincoln assassinated by John Wilkes Booth (1865)

Apr 14 1948
In 1948, A flash of light is observed in the crater Plato on the Moon.

Apr 14 1986
Hindus crossing a bridge over the sacred Ganges river at Hardwar, India to bathe during the Kumbha Mela fete somehow stampede. 46 pilgrims are trampled. Nigal is suspected to be at the heart of the matter.

Apr 14 1989
In 1989, former winery worker Ramon Salcido went on a rampage in Sonoma County, California, killing seven people, including his wife and four daughters; he was later sentenced to death.”

“Apr 15 1792
The guillotine is first tested on human corpses.

Apr 15 1912
Unsinkable ship Titanic sinks after being torn by iceberg, with a loss of 1493 passengers.

Apr 15 1945
In 1945, during World War II, British and Canadian troops liberated the Nazi concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen in northern Germany.

Apr 15 1955
McDonald's Restaurant 1st opened (San Bernadino, CA; 1955)

Apr 15 1962
actress Clara Blandick, 80, the Auntie Em of the Wizard of Oz, took an overdose of sleeping pills and tied a plastic bag around her head in a Hollywood hotel room. She left out her resume and press clippings so the newspapers would get her obituary right.

Apr 15 1989
95 Died in UK's worst soccer disaster (Sheffield; 1989) In 1989, Sheffield, England: Ninety-four people were killed and 170 injured at Hillsborough stadium when throngs of Liverpool soccer fans, many without tickets, collapsed a stadium barrier in a mad rush when Nigal screamed "More beer!" at the game between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. It was Britain's worst soccer disaster.

Apr 15 1990
Greta Garbo dead.

Apr 15 1990
Mass food poisoning kills 150 people at an engagement party in Basti, Uttar Pradesh. Advice: Don't eat the bread.

Apr 15 1999
Dutch airlines KLM issues an apology for shredding 400 ground squirrels at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam. The squirrels did not have proper importation papers, and thus were forced to meet their fate of grinding steel rotary blades. Kleetn's squirrel is the only one known to have survived. It is estimated that over 1000 fleas also lost their lives. A public outcry forced KLM's apology.”

“Apr 16 1943
In 1943, chemist Albert Hoffman took the first LSD trip as a tiny amount of lysergic acid diethylamide accidently seeped through the skin of his finger.

Apr 16 1947
An explosion on the Liberty ship Grandcamp of 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer kill 552 people (and as many as 200 more unaccounted for), and injures 3,000. One-third of Texas City is destroyed, twenty blocks of the waterfront are gone, windows more than ten miles away are shattered. The blast was heard 160 miles away.

Apr 16 1953
President Eisenhower talks to the nation about "guns" versus "butter". In a fair fight, I'd have to give the odds to "guns".

Apr 16 1966
G. Gordon Liddy and other officials bust Timothy Leary for possession of marijuana.”

“Apr 20
It's 4/20, the day to toke up.

Apr 20 1233
Pope Gregory IX places the Inquisition, in existence since 1227, under the aegis of the Dominican Order. Torture is apparently sometimes necessary to save souls, and the office continues to exist today as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Apr 20 1889
Adolf Hitler is born in Braunau, Austria.

Apr 20 1979
President Jimmy Carter is attacked by a Killer Swamp Rabbit, while on vacation in Plains GA. The rabbit swam menacingly towards him, and he had to repel the ferocious creature with a paddle. There were no injuries. Press Secretary Jody Powell leaked the story to the press, and the White House had a lot of explaining to do.

Apr 20 1992
Benny Hill dead.

Apr 20 1993
LaToya Jackson's husband and manager, Jack Gordon, was arrested after he allegedly beat her with a dining room chair at their New York apartment.

Apr 20 1999
The Trenchcoat Mafia, a group of disenfranchised high school "outcast" boys dressed in black coat garb, slaughters 15 students at their Littleton, Colorado school. The team was heavily armed, possessed explosives, wore black masks, and at least two of them were among the dead.”

“Thanks for the hint, now I get it.”

“April 21, 1847
The Donner Party arrives at Fort Sutter, after eating a number of their own, and shooting two of their indian guides for food stock.”

“Apr 22 1915
Chlorine gas was used by the German Army in WWI at Ypres, the first use of poison gas for military purposes.

Apr 22 1923
Birthday of Bettie Page in Kingsport TN (Playboy centerfold, January 1955)

Apr 22 1934
John Dillinger and gang escape an FBI shootout at the Little Bohemia Hunting Lodge in Wisconsin. An innocent person was killed in the embarrassing incident.

Apr 22 1954
Birthday of porn star and Ivory Soap model Marilyn Chambers.

Apr 22 1992
Over 200 people die in Gaudalajara as a result of a series of sewer explosions. It all started when Nigal exclaimed "Hey Amigos, watch me light my fart!".

Apr 22 1994
Richard nixon dead.

Apr 22 1997
Lima, Peru - Movimiento Revolucionario Tupac Amaru (MRTA) guerrillas seize 460 hostages at the Japanese ambassador's residence December 17 1996 All but 72 hostages are released through negotiations. Peruvian special forces storm the residence, kill the 14 members of the MRTA and release hostages April 22 1997.”

“April 23, 1985 - Coca-Cola announces new Coke

April 23, 1951 - Lenny Bruce arrested as he impersonated a priest and solicited funds for a leper colony

April 23, 1954 - Hank Aaron hits the first of 755 home runs”

“Apr 30 1943
The body of a "Major Martin", thought to be Marvin Gardens, washes ashore on the Spanish coastline. Martin, an unidentified corpse, had been doctored by British forces to appear to be transporting papers related to the invasion of Sardinia (and not Sicily.) The message fools the Italians into diverting their troops to Sardinia.

Apr 30 1945
Adolf Hitler suicides in the fuhrerbunker.

Apr 30 1961
In 1961, Lee Harvey Oswald marries Marina Prusakova in Minsk USSR.

Apr 30 1967
Muhammad Ali stripped of Heavyweight Boxing Title for refusing to kill people in Vietnam (1967)

Apr 30 1975
South Vietnamese President Duong Van Minh announced the surrender of Saigon. Saigon fell to communists (1975)

Apr 30 1991
A cyclone hits Bangladesh, killing 138,000 people and causing approximately $1B in damage. Since this seems to happen regularly, it does not seem like a good place to live.

Apr 30 1993
Monica Seles, tennisplayer, stabbed in back by male assailant on Apr. 30, 1993 in Hamburg, Germany; spent remainder of 1993 and all of '94 recovering.

Apr 30, 2002
Mr.Nigal proclaims his heterosexuality regarding his love for the music of the band Tool. I like TOOL also (no I'm not gay and no I'm not gay for denying it!).”

“May 2 1863
Confederate General Stonewall Jackson was accidently shot by one of his own men during the battle of Chancellorsville (Virginia), immediately afterwards the man is said to have remarked "Oops!". He died eight days later.

May 2 1946
Battle of Alcatraz. Six prisoners attempt escape.

May 2 1957
Senator Joseph McCarthy dead, two and a half years after he was censured by the U.S. Senate for his deplorable witch-hunts during committee hearings. McCarthy had discovered that it was much more effective to have the private sector repress people than the government itself. In all, about 150 people were jailed during this period, mostly brief sentences.

May 2 1957
Mob figure Frank Costello is shot in the head by Vincent "the Chin" Gigante. Instead of killing him, the bullet circumnavigates between his skin and cranium, exiting through the original wound. Costello retires from the mafia soon afterwards.

May 2 1972
World famous drag queen J. Edgar Hoover dies at 77.

May 2 1997
Eddie Murphy is caught by police with 20 year old transvestite hooker Atisone Seiuli in his car. He was not charged, claiming he was being a "good samaritan" by giving the she-gentleman a ride.”

“May 3 1945
Near the very end of the War in Europe, the British sink the Cap Arcona and the Thielbek, both flying white flags, ending the lives of nearly 7000 concentration camp survivors. In the process of abandoning his ship, the German captain of the Arcona used a machete to hack his way through the masses of prisoners. The incident is the largest single loss of life in the history of sea travel.

May 3 1963
Birmingham Police sic dogs on Civil rights protesters, then unleash fire hoses at a very powerful 100 PSI. After television carries the brutality of "law enforcement", the nation increases its willingness to resolve segregation issues.

May 3 1987
Donna Rice spends the night at Gary Hart's town house in Denver for a night of "festivities". Hart had challenged reporters to prove he was having illicit affairs, and apparently the proof was not difficult. The candidate withdraws from the race five days later, and Donna later begins a new career as anti-pornography crusader.

May 3 1988
The White House admitted to the press that Ronald and Nancy Reagan consult astrologers to help with certain decisions involving presidential activities, including the timing of superpower summits. Afterwhich, Nigal is heard to exclaim "I knew it...I knew it!!!"”

“May 5 540
A son of Charlemagne, Emperor Louis of Bavaria, dies of fright during a total eclipse of the sun. His sons quarrel, causing the division of his Empire into France, Germany, and Italy.

May 5 1818
Karl Marx born in Prussia.

May 5 1821
Napoleon dead on Corsica.

May 5 1865
1st Train Robbery (Ohio; 1865)

May 5 1925
John T. Scopes arrested for teaching evolution in Tennessee (1925)

May 5 1945
Elsie Mitchell and five children she was watching are killed by a Japanese balloon bomb sent over the Pacific into Oregon. They are the only people killed in action on the US mainland during WWII.

May 5 1955
An internal CIA memo emphasizes the need for a drug that creates a state of "pure euphoria" and no letdown. From this springs Operation Midnight Climax, in which CIA brothels were run in San Francisco, with their customers unknowingly dosed with LSD by prostitutes. Operative George Hunter White observed reactions behind a two way mirror, purely in the interests of science.

May 5 1961
Alan B. Shepard is the first American in space, with a fifteen minute suborbital flight. He pissed himself in his suit before the flight, as it lacked an evacuation system.

May 5 1968
Albert Dekker, star of monster movies like Dr. Cyclops, was found hanging in his bathroom handcuffed and wearing ladies lingerie. Police said it was a autoerotic experience gone wrong.

May 5 1982
Secretary Janet Smith at the CS department at Vanderbilt University is injured when she opens a special present from the Unabomber.

May 5 1985
US President Ronald Reagan visits the Nazi SS cemetary at Bitburg.

May 5 1993
Keanu Reeves arrested on drunk driving charges in Los Angeles.

May 5 2000
Quoting from "5/5/2000: Ice -- the Ultimate Disaster" (by Richard W Noone), "On May 5 of the year 2000, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will be aligned with the earth for the first time in 6,000 years. On that day the ice buildup at the South Pole will upset the earth's axis, sending trillions of tons of ice in the water sweeping over the surface of our planet."”

“May 9 1950
Dianetics is first published, after an article on the subject is published in the May issue of Astounding Science Fiction. Critics deem the work "incomprehensible" and "impenetrable". The subsequent movement goes on to become one of the scariest, most powerful cults in modern history.

May 9 1978
Italian premier Aldo Moro's body discovered. He had been kidnapped by the Red Brigades. Kidnappers snap a photo of Moro holding a newspaper proclaiming that he is dead.

May 9 1979
A present from the Unabomber explodes at Northwestern University, injuring a graduate student.

May 9 1980
Thirty-five people die when the Liberian cargo ship Summit Venture rammed a pier of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa, Florida. About 1,300 feet of the bridge fell 150 feet into the water, carrying with it seven vehicles plus a Greyhound bus. Police estimate over 300 million barnicles lost their lives.

May 9 1983
The all powerful and infallible Pope John Paul II reverses the condemnation of Galileo, issued by another all powerful and infallible Pope Urban VIII in 1633. The Church tried the scientist for heresy and forced him to recant basic facts of science, an error that the institution took 350 years to admit. Better late than never!

May 9 1995
The ebola threat causes Kinshassa, Zaire to be placed under quarantine. During this outbreak in Zaire, over 120 people die of the virus. Describing the hospital, a physician wrote, "There was blood everywhere, blood on the mattresses, the floors, the walls. Vomit, diarrhea...but that darn song "Wooly Bully" sung like "Woola Ebola" did bring smiles to the dying faces.”

“I am told:

May 10, 1984 My eldest son was born. Has anybody ever evicted their son?


* in 1869, the "golden spike" was driven at Promontory, Utah, joining
the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific lines to form America's first transcontinental railway.”

“On the Promontary Butte?”

“The "I am told" went with the driving of the spike, not the birth of my son. I was there!

:D”

“May 10 1865
Dr. Samuel Mudd, the man who set John Wilkes Booth broken leg on April 14th of that year, sentenced to life imprisonment for conspiracy to kill the president. It did not seem to matter that he was innocent. Mudd spent four years on an island off Florida before being pardoned by President Andrew Johnson.

May 10 1924
In perhaps the single worst mistake in crime-fighting history, Attorney General Harlan Fiske Stone selects J. Edgar Hoover to head the FBI.

May 10 1933
Throughout Germany books with un-German ideas are burned.

May 10 1941
Deputy Fuhrer Rudolf Hess flies to Scotland. Hitler declares Hess insane and has no explanation for his actions. He remained imprisoned until his apparent suicide in 1987.

May 10 1977
Joan Crawford dead from stomach cancer. During her early career Crawford had performed in stag films, and spent a considerable sum later purchasing the prints back.

May 10 1993
In the greatest factory fire in history, 188 people, mostly young women, die in a blaze that consumed a doll factory in Bangkok, Thailand. The factory was at work making Bart Simpson dolls for the American market; workers had been locked by management inside the factory. D'oh!

May 10 1994
John Wayne Gacy, aself-employed clown, executed by lethal injection. Twenty-seven bodies of young men and boys were found under his house.

May 10 1994
An official survey is administered at Twenty-nine Palms marine base in California to veterans of Desert Storm. The final question asked marines that, if guns were banned in the United States, whether they would be willing to fire on U.S. citizens who refused to turn theirs in. Be afraid...be veeeeery afraid!!!”

“Start charging rent Pathman.”

“Jun 10 1692
1st Witches hanged at Salem (1692)

Jun 10 1942
The town of Lidice (Loditz) is liquidated by the Nazis as penalty for the assassination of Hitler's favorite, Reinhard Heydrich. All adult males are killed, women concentrated, and town bulldozed.

Jun 10 1973
J. Paul Getty Jr kidnapped in Rome.

Jun 10 1980
1980- Comedian Richard Pryor blew up while free-basing cocaine and was serioulsy burned.

Jun 10 1980
The Unabomber strikes Percy Wood, president of United Airlines, when he opens what appears to be a package containing a book. He suffers injuries at his Lake Forest, IL home.

Jun 10 1997
Mattel introduced Barbie's new friend Becky, a "differently-abled" doll in a wheelchair (1997)

Jun 10 1999
Thomas Pellechio of Miami Florida, kills his uncle Russell Cameron by inserting a samurai sword into the man's rectum, and then burning him alive in some manner of ritual homicide. Pellechio then claimed to be with the CIA, and ran off. The reason for the attack remains unknown.”

“Jun 12 1963
Tich Quan Duc, a buddhist monk in Saigon, commits an act of public immolation by dousing himself with gasoline and setting fire.

Jun 12 1963
Civil Rights lawyer Medgar Evers murdered by segregationists in Mississippi (1963)

Jun 12 1978
David "Son of Sam" Berkowitz sentenced to 6 life sentences, one for each murder (1978)

Jun 12 1994
Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman murdered, probably by O.J. Simpson (1994)”

“Jun 13 1886
The rather mad King Ludwig II of Bavaria is found drowned in a shallow pool of water. The freshly deposed king was in house arrest after a coup d'etat by his uncle, Prince Luitpold von Bayern. It is not clear whether his death was a result of murder or suicide.

Jun 13 1920
The US Post Office rules that children may not be sent via Parcel Post.

Jun 13 1944
Hitler begins assaulting the English with 9,000 V1's.

Jun 13 1962
Three convicts, Frank Lee Morris, and the brothers Anglin, escape from Alcatraz with a crude rowboat. They are the only prisoners believed to have successfully escaped. An attempt in 1937 likely resulted in drowning.

Jun 13 1971
The New York Times commences publication of the Pentagon Papers, the top secret DOD analysis of what went wrong during the Vietnam War. The U.S. Justice Department was granted a court order blocking further publication of the embarrassing documents, but a Supreme Court decision struck this down, and publication resumed.

Jun 13 1985
A bomb mailed by the Unabomber is discovered at the fabrication department of Boeing, Inc. in Auburn, WA. It is safely dismantled, the first Unabomb to be defeated.”

“Jun 13 1967
good bud came to the city---whooo!!”

“Jun 15 1409
Petros Philargos is elected as Pope Alexander V by the Council of Pisa. This poses some difficulty as there is currently a living pope in Rome, Gregory XII, and one in Avignon, Benedict XII. None of the three popes are willing to give up power, leaving the Chuch in a double schism.

Jun 15 1667
1667 June 15: Although the exact date is disputed, it is believed that on June 15, 1667 a Parisian physician and astrologer, Professor Jean-Baptiste Denis (1640?-1704, sometimes spelled "Denys"), performed the first blood transfusion involving a human. The patient was a feverous young man on whom other doctors had employed leeches 20 times; after Denis transfused him with several ounces of lamb's blood, he "rapidly recovered from his lethargy." Denis used a similar method to cure a madman, and a few more experiments by scientists in France and London were successful. But after one patient died, Denis was tried for murder. He was exonerated -- because it turned out the patient's wife had used poison -- but soon blood transfusions were banned throughout Europe. Over a century passed before the first attempts at human-to-human transfusions.

Jun 15 1790
French Protestant militia massacred 300 Roman Catholics.

Jun 15 1934
Hitler and Mussolini met for the 1st time (1934)

Jun 15 1955
The United States stages its first nationwide civil defense exercise. Duck and cover, people.

Jun 15 1969
Hee Haw debut. Yee haw.

Jun 15 1992
In an asinine decision, the US Supreme Court rules that it is acceptable for suspects to be kidnapped in foreign countries and brought to the United States for trial. Of course, the same thing happening in reverse is not acceptable.

Jun 15 1993
The Washington Times reports that over the last 20 years, 1416 boy scout leaders have been expelled for molestation of their boytroops. And those are just the ones that got caught.

Jun 15 1999
Nicholas Vitalich arrested outside a San Diego, California supermarket for #&%!$slapping his girlfriend in the head with a large tuna. He was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, namely the fresh tuna fish.”

“If tunas are outlawed only the outlaws will have tunas!”

“Jun 24 1374
An outbreak of "Dancing Mania" (sometimes known as "St. John's aka Buddur's Dance") erupts in Aix-la-Chapelle, wherein people were overcome by the ravages of uncontrollable, manic dance. Frothing at the mouth, diabolical screaming, and sexual frenzy were not unheard of. Ergot madness is now suspected as being the ultimate cause of the mania, which lasted well into the month of July.

Jun 24 1947
Businessman pilot Kenneth Arnold encounters a formation of nine flying saucers near Mt. Ranier, Washington, exhibiting unusual movements and velocities of 1,700 mph. No explanation is found for this first report of flying saucers in the recent era, but it does earn Mr. Arnold legions of skeptics and an eventual IRS tax audit.

Jun 24 1948
East Germany blockades the city of West Berlin.

Jun 24 1957
The U.S. Supreme Court rules that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment, though a dissenting opinion included with the ruling notes the issue of prior restraint renders this a terrible decision.

Jun 24 1993
The Unabomber strikes for the second time in one month, injuring computer scientist David Gelernter at Yale University, with a padded manilla package containing a special surprise.”

“BTW, Ergot madness is LSD trance. Ergot is a rot on Rye that is produced during an extremely wet growing season. It is thought to be the cause of many extraordinary cases of mass hystreia, including the Salem with trials and the Affaire des sorcières de Loudon.”

“Hysteria and witch. Write them on the board 100 times.”

“what do you mean, "Ergot madness is LSD trance"? i've never heard of it before. you mean that Ergot makes people hallucinate? or it's actually chemically LSD?”

“Ergot is a psychoactive mold. Yes, you will hallucinate if you consume it.

To think all those people were tortured and killed because of bad bread.

Look it up, it's some interesting reading.”

“Isn't ergot the substance where Albert Hoffman obtained and isolated his 25th chemical?”

“huh. that's pretty wild! i will look it up...”

“i must be getting old, i've totally read all that before! i guess the whole witch trials association threw me off...i never heard that part. veerrrrrry interesting.”

“Ergot poisoning is believed to be responsible for over 85% of the posts on Trail Talk?”

“blah, blah, blah...i'm trying to watch some music here, if you don't mind!”

“Jun 28 1905
Languille, whoever he was, was executed at 5.30 a.m.

Jun 28 1914
Archduke Franz Ferdinand and wife Sofia are assassinated in Sarajevo by an insane Serbian, causing the powderkeg that was Europe to erupt into World War I.

Jun 28 1969
The three-day Stonewall Riots, triggered by the police raid of a New York City gay bar, begin the gay rights movement.

Jun 28 1997
Mike Tyson is disqualified from a championship boxing bout after he bites a large portion of Evander Holyfield's ear off. Tyson later is banned from boxing and fined $3 million for the incident. Tastes like chicken.”

“Jun 29 1603
Globe Theater, Shakespeare's original theatrical venue, burns to the ground.

Jun 29 1967
Actress Jayne Mansfield is decapitated at age 34 in an automobile crash, when the car in which she was a passenger collided with a parked tractor trailer. To lessen the morbidity of her death, some sources try to spread the falsehood that only her wig flew off in the accident. But Mansfield was, in fact, decapitated.

Jun 29 1971
In 1971, thru June 30, Soyuz 11: Three cosmonauts, Georgi T. Dolrovolsky, Vladislav N. Volkov, and Viktor I. Patsayev, found dead in the craft after its automatic landing. Apparently the cause of death was loss of pressurization in the space craft during re-entry into the earth's atmosphere.

Jun 29 1978
Actor Bob Crane (star of 60's television sitcom "Hogan's Heroes") is blundgeoned to death in his Scottsdale, Arizona hotel room. He is found surrounded by pornography and videotapes of his sexual encounters.

Jun 29 1989
The Washington Times reports, that "A homosexual prostitution ring is under investigation by federal and District authorities and includes among its clients key officials of the Reagan and Bush administrations, military officers, congressional aides and U.S. and foreign businessmen with close ties to Washington's political elite." The story went on to document how homosexual call boys had been given tours of the White House, under the aegis of Republican Craig Spence. Spence was later found dead at the Ritz-Carlton in Boston, an apparent suicide.

Jun 29 1992
President of Algeria Mohammad Boudiaf assassinated by one of his guards with an automatic weapon while he was giving an address, prompting a new round of violence and assassinations in the African country.”

“Jun 30 1520
After looting Tenochtitlan, Spaniards are attacked by an angry Aztec mob. Tied down by armor and treasure, they are no match for the natives and nearly half of Cortes' men lose their lives.

Jun 30 1837
Use of the Pillory banned (UK; 1837)

Jun 30 1882
Assassin of Garfield, Charles Guiteau, hanged. Tickets were sold for as high as $300.

Jun 30 1908
A huge airburst explodes over Podkamennaya Tunguska, 7:30 am. The burst flattens thousands of square miles of trees, believed to be caused by an asteroid or comet impact. Detail photo.

Jun 30 1934
The Night of Long Knives. For Hitler to stay in power, it was necessary to remove the stormtrooper SA as a paramilitary force. At night the SA leadership is taken away to be shot by the SS, except for Edmund Heines (caught in bed with a teenage boy, he is shot immediately by Hitler's order). Anyone on the Reich List of Unwanted Persons is rounded up for execution.

Jun 30 1999
Two Amish men, Abner Stoltzfus and Abner Stoltzfus (no relation), both of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, are sentenced to one year in prison for trafficking cocaine to other Amish sect members.”

“July 1
Feast of the Most Precious Blood, celebrating the blood shed during Christ's Passion and reassumed into His body at Resurrection.

July 1 1945
The date proposed by Churchill for the start of WWIII, where U.S. and British forces were to meet Russian forces in Poland with a two pronged attack, using 47 divisions. It would have been a terrible mistake to attempt what both Napoleon and Hitler had failed to do.

July 1 1946
Bikini Tests: Atomic bomb tests, using the Nagasaki-type implosion bomb, held at Bikini Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands.

July 1 1951
Mary Reeser of St. Petersburg, Florida spontaneously combusted (1951)

July 1 1991
Michael Landon, star of "I Was a Teenage Werewolf", dies.

July 1 1993
Psycho walked into San Francisco law office at 101 California with semi-automatic weapons and opened fire, killing 8 and wounding 6; victims' families then sued the gun manufacturer (1993)

July 1 1996
Body of actress/epileptic Margeaux Hemingway found, suicide.”

“Jul 4 1054
A fresh supernova becomes visible in the daylight sky for 23 days.

Jul 4 1712
9 Whites killed in slave uprising in New York (1712)

Jul 4 1826
Thomas Jefferson dies from dysentery.

Jul 4 1848
Communist Manifesto published

Jul 4 1976
Tina Turner leaves Ike Turner forever.

Jul 4 1984
Nancy Reagan first utters the words "Just Say No".

Jul 4 1987
Klaus Barbie, the "Butcher of Lyon", convicted for the deportation of Jews, torture of resistance fighters, and crimes against humanity. After the war Barbie had worked for US intelligence and escaped to Bolivia with their assistance.”

“Jul 4 1826
John Adams dies. His last words were “Thomas Jefferson still lives”, but Jefferson had died just hours earlier.”

“Jul 5 1948
The beautiful film actress Carole Landis committed suicide in Brentwood Heights with an overdose of Seconal. While she did appear in quite a number of films in the 1940's, her career never met her expectations. By the time she died her contract with 20th Century Fox had been ended.

Jul 5 1963
Cremation is finally sactioned by the Catholic Church as an acceptable means of remains disposal.

Jul 5 1984
The US Supreme Court allows "good faith" exceptions the exclusionary rule. Illegal evidence is now admissible if obtained by the police in "good faith". [What a crock.] Justice William Brennan writes, "The Court's victory over the Fourth Amendment is complete."

Jul 5 1995
A deck at a Grateful Dead show in Wentzville, Missouri collapses, injuring 100 deadheads. Dusty, from Akron, OH, is paralized from the waist down.”

“July 6 1415
Jan Hus burned at the stake.

July 6 1944
Fire breaks out at a matinee performance of the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Baily Circus burning 168 people to death, and injuring an additional 250. The main tent had been waterproofed with wax thinned by gasoline. Said one of the Flying Wallendas, "I can never look down at a crowd again without smelling the flames and the burning flesh."”