U.S. political lowlights

•On Jan. 2, 1811, Sen. Timothy Pickering of Massachusetts becomes the first senator to be censured by the Senate. Pickering was accused of violating congressional law by publicly revealing secret foreign-policy documents communicated by the president to the Senate.

•On Dec. 29, 1890, the U.S. Army’s 7th Cavalry kills 146 Sioux at Wounded Knee in South Dakota. The Cavalry surrounded the Sioux near Wounded Knee Creek and demanded they surrender their weapons. As that was happening, a fight broke out between an Indian and a U.S. soldier and a shot was fired, although it’s unclear from which side. The brutal massacre followed.

•On Dec. 30, 1922, in post-revolutionary Russia, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) is established. Also known as the Soviet Union, it was the first country in the world to be based on Marxist socialism.

•On Jan. 3, 1938, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, an adult victim of polio, founds the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, which he later renamed the March of Dimes Foundation. In response to a fundraising appeal, the public flooded the White House with 2,680,000 dimes and thousands of dollars in donations.

•On Dec. 31, 1947, America’s favorite Western couple gets married. Roy Rogers, star of numerous Westerns and television and radio shows, wed his co-star, Dale Evans. Rogers and Evans had performed together for years, but didn’t marry until a year after Rogers’ wife passed away.

•On Jan. 1, 1962, the Beatles audition for London record company Decca on the same day as Brian Poole and the Tremeloes. Decca signed the Tremeloes, but not the Beatles. The Tremeloes first hit the charts with “Twist and Shout,” later also done by the Beatles. The Tremeloes band is still active today.

•On Jan. 4, 1974, President Richard Nixon refuses to hand over tape recordings and documents that had been subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee. Nixon would resign from office in disgrace eight months later.