1999—The $328 million Climate Orbiter crashes on Mars, because Lockheed forgot to use the metric system. 1990—As Dan Quayle speaks at a $2,500-plate fundraiser in Portland, Ore., the Reverse Peristalsis Painters protest by vomiting red, white, and blue mashed potatoes. 1955—A white male jury, which believes they’re guilty, finds Emmett Till’s murderers “not guilty.”1952—R. 1945—French soldiers who’d been detained in Saigon by the Japanese are released and armed by British General Douglas Gracey. 1779—John Paul Jones takes the British ship Serapis as the Bonhomme Richard sinks under him.