19721776 Club

Nixon orders North Vietnamese ports mined; supply lines to Hanoi now at risk

The move is meant to choke off weapons and goods reaching the North, but it carries the danger of drawing a harder response from Moscow or Beijing.

In 1972, President Nixon's decision to mine North Vietnamese ports aimed to cut off vital supplies and shift the war's momentum. This bold move risked escalating tensions and provoking a stronger Soviet or Chinese response, but it was seen as a necessary step to stem the flow of weapons and goods to North Vietnam…

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Coddington founds Newport; a new settlement opens on Aquidneck Island for those driven out by the Antinomian Controversy

The colony takes shape as Coddington plants a settlement built around the promise of religious freedom in Rhode Island.

1846

Taylor's army beats a Mexican force north of the Rio Grande; a war is now underway

American troops hold their ground in the first major engagement of the border dispute, with the armies still in the field and the outcome of the wider conflict far from settled.

1976

Six Flags opens the world's first modern looping coaster; the Great American Revolution launches at Magic Mountain

The ride debuts in the park's Bicentennial summer, sending riders through a complete vertical loop for the first time on a modern steel coaster.

19421776 Club

Carrier aircraft do all the fighting as Allied forces move to block a Japanese thrust into the South Pacific.

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Columbia lifts off with four aboard, the biggest crew yet, and two commercial satellites in the bay

After four test flights, the shuttle's fifth trip is its first with customers, and its crew rides up without pressure suits.

1955

West Germany joins NATO; a former enemy is now the alliance's eastern front against Moscow

Bonn gains full sovereignty and enters the Atlantic pact today, putting Western troops and nuclear guarantees on the Soviet Union's doorstep.

1946

A V-2 rises over White Sands; America fires a German rocket on its own soil for the first time

The missile that killed an estimated 9,000 civilians in London and Antwerp flies without a warhead, guided by manuals translated from German, as its builders work nearby under Operation Paperclip.

1985

Philadelphia police drop a bomb on a row house; fire spreads for hours, killing 11

Commissioner Sambor ordered the strike on 6221 Osage Ave; officials let the blaze run until 61 homes are ash and 250 people have nowhere to sleep.

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