This was the day the first phone book was issued (in New Haven, Conn. in 1878), the New Yorker magazine debuted (in 1925) and Edwin Land introduced his Polaroid Land camera (in 1947).

But it's also the day the Battle of Verdun began in 1916, the second bloodiest battle in World War I, resulting in a quarter-million deaths and a half a million wounded among the French and German combatants. The battle lasted almost the entire year and resulted in ... nothing. It became the epitome of the madness and futility of war and its hero, Field Marshal Philippe Petain, went on to betray the French people by heading the puppet Vichy regime under the Nazis who conquered France in the next world war.

It's also the day (in 1965) when Malcom X was assassinated, and 10 years later, saw Richard Nixon's attorney general, John Mitchell, and his top White House aides, H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman, sentenced to prison for their roles in the Watergate coverup. (Ehrlichman, by the way, moved to Santa Fe after he served his time).

Speaking of the '60s, there will be a reunion of that era's radicals at the University of New Mexico today when David Hilliard of the Black Panthers, Mark Rudd of SDS and Weather Underground (who teaches these days at Albuquerque TVI) and Dennis Banks of the American Indian Movement take part in a two-hour talk from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Santa Ana Room of the Student Union Building. See the Journal's story here.

Your Name:

Your Email Address:

Rate this article:
Poor Great

Comment:

BOLD

"QUOTE"

UNDERLINE