1792 Armed Revolutionary mobs stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris, forced
King Louis XVI and his family to take refuge in the Legislative Assembly, and
massacred the Swiss Guards. The National Convention found Louis guilty of high
treason in December and executed him in January 1793.
1827 Friction between the Irish-American and African-American
communities in Cincinnati intensified to the point that gangs of white citizens
attacked blacks and destroyed their property. City leaders failed to protect
black citizens, and by the end of August 1000 had fled to Canada.
1835 A mob of 500 white men destroyed the Noyes
Academy in Canaan, New Hampshire, one of the first secondary schools in the U.S.
to admit free blacks. The mob hooked a team of 90 oxen to the building, ripped
it from the ground, and dragged it down the street. A vote at an official town
meeting that declared the academy a "nuisance" protected the mob from
legal action.
1920 Mexican revolutionary general and bandit Francisco
"Pancho" Villa surrendered to Mexican federal authorities. When a
bottle of Cognac was produced, Villa took a swig and pronounced, "I'm
ready now to embrace my worst enemies."
1959 Police in Cincinnati arrested the four male
members of the Platters singing group and charged them with aiding and abetting
prostitution, lewdness and assignation. Although all four were acquitted, the
charges seriously damaged record sales and airplay.
1962 Judge Adie Durden of Albany, Georgia, found Rev.
Martin Luther King Jr. and three other civil rights leaders guilty of
disorderly conduct charges for staging racial demonstrations. He fined each
$200 and sentenced them to 60 days in jail but immediately suspended the
sentences and placed King and his associates on probation.
1969 Members of Charles Manson's cult murdered Leno
and Rosemary LaBianca in their Los Angeles home, one day after they killed
actress Sharon Tate and four other people. A jury found Manson and
three followers guilty on all counts of first-degree murder.
1970 The trial of Doors lead singer Jim Morrison for Lewd
and Lascivious Behavior (a felony), Indecent Exposure, Open Profanity, and
Public Drunkenness began in Miami, FL. Morrison allegedly exposed himself on
stage during a show in Miami in 1969. He was
eventually found guilty of indecent exposure and open profanity, sentenced to
six months in jail, fined $500, and released on bond. He flew to Paris, where
he died in 1971. The Florida Clemency Board issued a pardon years later.
1972 Police in Sweden arrested Paul and Linda
McCartney for drug possession backstage after a concert in Gothenburg. An
unnamed employee in their office had mailed the couple six ounces of marijuana
to enjoy on the road. Paul was fined $1,000 and Linda $200.
1977 In Yonkers, NY, police arrested and charged
24-year-old postal employee David Berkowitz with being the "Son of
Sam," the serial killer who terrorized New York City for more than a year.
Berkowitz confessed, pled guilty, and was sentenced to 365 years in prison for killing
six people and wounding seven more.
1981 Investigators found the severed head of missing
six-year-old Adam Walsh in a drainage ditch in rural Indian County,
Florida, about 130 miles from where he disappeared two weeks before. Ottis
Toole, a convicted serial killer, confessed to Adam's murder but was never
charged for it due to a botched investigation. Adam's father John Walsh became
an advocate for victims of violent crime.
1993 A freighter collided with two barges at the mouth
of Tampa Bay, Fla., spilling 330,000 gallons of fuel oil and another 32,000
gallons of jet fuel, diesel fuel, and gasoline into the water. No one was
killed but a five-mile-long slick developed and a thirteen-mile stretch of
beach was fouled by the oil. “In 1999, the federal and state trustees reached
an $8 million settlement with the vessel owners to resolve government claims,
including cleanup and damage assessment costs, and restore natural resources” (www.baysoundings.com).
1994 U.S. President Clinton filed a motion to dismiss
a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Paula Corbin Jones on the grounds of presidential
immunity. After years of legal wrangling, in 1998 Clinton paid Jones $850,000
in an out-of-court settlement with no acknowledgement of wrong-doing.
1995 A U.S. federal court indicted domestic terrorists
Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols for the Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168
people and injured more than 680. Michael Fortier plead guilty in a
plea-bargain for his testimony.
1999 An Indian fighter jet shot down a Pakistani naval
aircraft for crossing into Indian air space. Sixteen people were killed.
Pakistan claimed the plane was on a routine exercise and lodged a compensation
claim with the International Court of Justice, but the Court dismissed the case.
1999 White supremacist Buford O. Furrow, Jr. walked
into the Los Angeles Jewish Community Center and opened fire with a submachine
gun, wounding two adults and three boys. He fled the scene, carjacked a Toyota
at gunpoint, killed a postal worker because he was Asian, and took a 275-mile
taxi ride to Las Vegas, where he walked into an FBI office and confessed.
2006 Scotland Yard foiled a major terrorist plot to
detonate liquid explosives smuggled in hand luggage on ten aircraft travelling
from the UK to the U.S. and Canada.
2009 The Handlová mine blast in Trencin Region,
Slovakia, killed 20 people and injured nine. The deadly explosion occurred
after mine rescuers had earlier been deployed to extinguish a fire in the
Eastern shaft of the mine. Three mining company employees were eventually
charged with negligence.
2018 A jury in California awarded $289 million to former
groundskeeper Dewayne Johnson in the Monsanto "Roundup" case. Johnson
contracted terminal cancer after using the popular weed killer.
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