| June 29, 2008 | - The Supreme Court overturned the 32-year ban on handguns in Washington, D.C., ruling 5-4 that there is a Second Amendment right to own a gun for personal use. Justice John Paul Stevens wrote in his dissent that the court's ruling, its first on the Second Amendment in 70 years, showed a lack of “respect for the well-settled views of all of our predecessors on the court, and for the rule of law itself.” The National Rifle Association promptly brought lawsuits against five other cities with handgun bans, including San Francisco, Chicago, and Oak Park, Illinois. “It's just completely befuddling,” said the Oak Park village manager, “that our Supreme Court would be in alliance with the gangbangers.”
| Source 1:
The New York Times
Source 2:
NPR
|
| September 16, 2007 | - Thousands of people joined veterans in an antiwar march in Washington, D.C., at which 189 people were arrested, and Geoff Millard, president of the D.C. chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War, urged the peace movement to “take the next step past protest and to resistance.”
| Source:
WaPo
|
| July 24, 2007 | - A Washington, D.C.,
newspaper ranked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi number four on a list of the “50 Most Beautiful People on Capitol Hill.” Other honorees included congressional aides, a Washington Redskins cheerleader, and a police officer.
| Source:
The Hill
|
| March 29, 2007 | - In Washington, D.C., Karl Rove danced on stage during a press dinner and pretended to be a rapper, shouting: “I'm MC Rove.”
| Source:
BBC
|
| March 21, 2007 | -
Al Gore returned to Capitol Hill to testify that global warming is a planetary emergency. Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts called Gore a prophet, and Rep. John Dingell of Michigan addressed him as “Mr. President.” Joe Barton of Texas, the leading Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, told Gore he was “totally wrong” and that, if need be, Republican lawmakers would stay late for an “all-out cat fight” with Democrats. Ralph Hall, also of Texas, speculated that Gore's attack on the energy industry could result in war “when and if OPEC nations abandon the U.S.A.,” and Roscoe Bartlett (R., Md.) said that he thought it was “probably possible to be a conservative without appearing to be an idiot.”
| Source 1:
AP vie Breitbart
Source 2:
Huffington Post
|
| January 31, 2007 | - After it ransacked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Washington, D.C., residence, a small black bird was captured in a brown bag and released. “She kept thinking to herself,” said a spokesman, “‘Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.”’”
| Source:
Washington Post
|
| January 18, 2007 | - Sex-changing chemicals were discovered in Washington, D.C.'s Potomac River.
| Source:
BBC
|
| January 2, 2007 | - After two centuries without Congressional representation, it appeared that residents of Washington, D.C. might get a vote.
| Source:
AP via Boston Globe
|
| December 5, 2006 | - The Iraq Study Group report was released. “Truth of the matter is a lot of reports in Washington are never read by anybody,” said President Bush. “To show you how important this one is, I read it.” When asked how Bush responded to the report's suggestions that the United States drastically alter its strategy in Iraq, panelist Lawrence Eagleburger said, “His reaction was, 'Where's my drink?'” Former Republican senator and Iraq Study Group member Alan Simpson said about Bush, “A 100-percenter is a person you don't want to be around. They have gas, ulcers, heartburn, and B.O.”
| Source 1:
Washington Post
Source 2:
White House
Source 3:
Washington Post
Source 4:
Washington Post
|
| November 22, 2006 | - In Washington, D.C., President George W. Bush
pardoned two turkeys, Flyer and Fryer.
| Source:
AP via local6.com
|
| September 22, 2006 | -
Fruit farmers rallied in Washington, D.C., to protest a shortage of low-wage, uninsured, illegal immigrant
laborers.
| Source:
New York times
|
| June 2, 2006 | - John Allen Muhammad, the Beltway Sniper, was sentenced to 6 consecutive life sentences.
| Source:
Baltimore Sun
|
| June 2, 2006 | - In Washington, D.C., a 13-year-old girl won the Scripps National Spelling Bee by correctly spelling “Ursprache.”
| Source:
ABC News
|
| May 26, 2006 | - In Washington, D.C., police searched the 50 acres of office space in the Rayburn House Office Building to find that the "gunfire" that precipitated a several hour lockdown was actually a pneumatic hammer.
| Source:
CNN.com
|
| April 28, 2006 | - In Washington, D.C., five members of Congress, all Democrats, were arrested outside the Sudanese embassy for protesting the genocide in Darfur.
| Source:
CNN.com
|
| April 20, 2006 | -
Chinese President Hu Jintao visited with President Bush in Washington, D.C. A Falun Gong protester interrupted the welcoming ceremony; President Bush apologized to Hu, and also called on Hu to appreciate the value of the yuan.
| Source 1:
AP via Yahoo! News
Source 2:
BBC News
|
| April 3, 2006 | - The U.S. Capitol building lost its power and was evacuated.
| Source:
CNN.com
|
| March 29, 2006 | - In Washington, D.C., President George W. Bush gave a speech about democracy. "One of the great things about America," he said, "one of the beauties of our country, is that when we see a young, innocent child blown up by an IED, we cry."
| Source:
The White House
|
| March 27, 2006 | -
President Bush attended a naturalization ceremony in Washington, D.C. "Our Constitution," he said, "does not limit citizenship by background or birth."
| Source:
The White House
|
| December 22, 2005 | - It was reported that the United States had, without warrants or court orders, been monitoring radiation levels at over 100 Muslim mosques, homes, businesses, and other sites in the Washington, D.C., area.
| Source:
U.S. News and World Report
|
| November 15, 2005 | - Ahmad Chalabi met with Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in Washington, D.C.
| Source:
AP
|
| October 28, 2005 | -
Marion Barry was charged with tax fraud.
| Source:
ABC News
|
| October 16, 2005 | - Tens of thousands of African Americans rallied in Washington, D.C., to mark the tenth anniversary of the Million Man March. Louis Farrakhan charged America “with criminal neglect” but did not repeat his allegations that the New Orleans levees had been blown up by bombs.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| September 25, 2005 | - One hundred thousand people marched in Washington, D.C., to protest the warin Iraq.
| Source:
AP
|
| September 9, 2005 | - Michael Brown, director of FEMA, was found to have lied on his resume and was removed from the Hurricane Katrina relief effort and sent back to Washington, D.C., to administer FEMA at a national level. "I'm going to go home," he said, "and walk my dog and hug my wife, and maybe get a good Mexican meal and a stiff margarita and a full night's sleep." He later resigned.
| Source 1:
CTV.ca
Source 2:
Time
Source 3:
SFGate.com
Source 4:
The New York Times
|
| August 31, 2005 | - President Bush decided to end his month-long vacation two days early and return to Washington, D.C. During his trip, Air Force One flew low over New Orleans. “This was a natural disaster,” said Bush.
| Source 1:
The Washington Post
Source 2:
The Village Voice
|
| July 11, 2005 | -
Terrorists set off bombs on three trains and a bus in London, killing fifty-two people, despite the fact that in 2003 Dick Cheney said that “our military is confronting the terrorists, along with our allies, in Iraq and Afghanistan so that innocent civilians will not have to confront terrorist violence in Washington or London or anywhere else in the world.”
| Source 1:
The Scotsman
Source 2:
The White House
|
| June 30, 2005 | - The U.S. Capitol was evacuated for a few minutes.
| Source:
CNN.com
|
| June 21, 2005 | - A car belonging to the police chief of Washington, D.C., was stolen.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| May 18, 2005 | -
British MP George Galloway went to Washington, D.C., to respond to allegations that he profited from the U.N.-managed Iraq oil-for-food program. “I met Saddam Hussein exactly the same number of times as Donald Rumsfeld met him,” said Galloway. “The difference is that Donald Rumsfeld met him to sell him guns, and to give him maps the better to target those guns.”
| Source:
Guardian
|
| May 15, 2005 | -
Burma claimed that “a world famous organization of a certain superpower nation” had trained the rebels who recently bombed shopping centers in Rangoon. The organization is apparently based in Washington, D.C.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| May 12, 2005 | - The White House and Capitol Building were evacuated for a few minutes when a small Cessna airplane got lost and strayed into restricted airspace.
| Source:
BBC News
|
| May 1, 2005 | - United States veterans commemorated the thirtieth anniversary of the fall of Saigon by laying a wreath at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C..
| Source:
BBC News
|
| January 11, 2005 | - The White House refused to reimburse Washington, D.C., for inauguration expenses, which will require $11.9 million to be diverted from homeland security funds.
| Source:
Washington Post
|
| December 21, 2004 | - Male fish in the Potomac river were producing eggs.
| Source:
AP
|
| October 7, 2004 | - A Washington, D.C., policeman arrested, cuffed, and jailed a woman for eating a candy bar in the subway.
| Source:
Associated Press
|
| September 30, 2004 | - A new homeland security blimp was seen flying around in Washington, D.C., and the House of Representatives voted to overturn Washington's 27-year-old ban on handguns.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| April 26, 2004 | - More than one million abortion-rights advocates marched in Washington, D.C., and vowed to defeat President Bush in November.
| Source:
Washington Post
|
