1933 - Dust Bowl: In South Dakota, a very strong dust storm strips topsoil from desiccated farmlands (this is just one of a series of disastrous dust storms that year).
1968 - Vietnam War: Operation Commando Hunt initiated - The goal of the operation is to interdict men and supplies on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, through Laos into South Vietnam (by the end of the operation, 3 million tons of bombs were dropped on Laos, which slowed but did not seriously disrupt trail operations).
1988 - In Sacramento, California, police find a body buried in the lawn of 60-year-old boardinghouse landlady Dorothea Puente (seven bodies were eventually found and Puente was convicted of three murders and sentenced to life in prison).