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19731776 Club

Judge Byrne dismisses all charges against Ellsberg; "bizarre events" have "incurably infected the prosecution"

Counts of espionage, conspiracy, and theft collapse after evidence surfaces of a White House burglary, missing wiretap records, and a job offer dangled before the judge himself.

On May 11, 1973, Federal District Judge William Matthew Byrne, Jr. declared a mistrial and dismissed all charges against Daniel Ellsberg and Anthony Russo — conspiracy, espionage, and theft of government property — after it emerged that Nixon White House operatives had burglarized the office of Ellsberg's psychiatrist, that administration representatives had dangled the FBI directorship before the trial judge himself, and that records of illegal wiretapping conducted by the White House Plumbers had gone conveniently missing. Byrne ruled that the "bizarre events" had "incurably infected the prosecution."…

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More from May 11
1858

Minnesota enters the Union as the 32nd state; the Dakota name, the French motto, the New England soul

Nine years after Ramsey stepped off a riverboat to govern 5,000 settlers, the eastern half of the old territory takes its place on the map.
1910

Taft signs Glacier into law; a million Montana acres become a national park

George Bird Grinnell, who first rode into the region in 1885 and spent two decades lobbying Congress, calls it "the Crown of the Continent."
1889

Gunmen behind a boulder hit Wham's paymaster convoy; eight Buffalo Soldiers wounded, $28,345 gone

A dozen riflemen firing from pre-built breastworks above an Arizona gorge stripped the Army payroll; Frankie Campbell's horse was still picking around the obstacle when the ambush opened.
19631776 Club
Two blasts hours after the truce agreement; 2,500 fill the streets, businesses burn, and Washington moves toward its first modern military deployment for domestic unrest.
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More from Cold War America
1957

Eisenhower orders troops into Little Rock to open Central High's doors

The same Arkansas Guard Governor Faubus used to bar nine Black students is now ordered to protect them.
1964

Warren Commission hands Johnson its verdict: Oswald acted alone

Ten months of testimony from 552 witnesses ends with a single conclusion: no conspiracy, foreign or domestic.
1983

A Soviet screen shows five U.S. missiles inbound; the duty officer calls it a glitch

Stanislav Petrov had no proof the alarm was false, only a hunch that a real attack would look different.
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.
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