On this day in conspiracies

Sometime after midnight, all eight people in the house (Josiah, 43; Sarah, 39; Herman, 11; Katherine, 10; Boyd, 7; Paul, 5; and the two Stillinger sisters) are struck fatally about the head with an axe belonging to Josiah, found bloodied inside the house. The killer covers the victims' faces with bedclothes, drapes cloth over mirrors and a glass door, and leaves a slab of bacon near the axe.

A US Navy Court of Inquiry convenes under the authority of Admiral John S. McCain Jr., with Rear Admiral Isaac Kidd presiding. Meeting for roughly a week, it concludes that available evidence points to a case of mistaken identity and finds no basis to attribute the attack to a knowing assault on a US ship.

The Rockefeller Commission issues its report, with a chapter devoted to the Special Operations Group and Operation CHAOS, confirming that the CIA had collected intelligence on domestic dissidents.

With the bank failing and roughly 1.3 billion dollars unaccounted for, Calvi disappears from his Rome apartment. He has shaved his moustache and travels on a false passport under the name Gian Roberto Calvini, moving through Venice and on toward London.

The Justice Department's Ruby Ridge Task Force reports to the Office of Professional Responsibility, finding the FBI's Rules of Engagement did not satisfy constitutional standards for the use of deadly force.

A letter from Donaghy's attorney filed with the court broadens the story dramatically, alleging that two referees fixed Game 6 of the 2002 Kings-Lakers Western Conference Finals to force a Game 7 and that league officials manipulated games through referees to boost ratings. The NBA and Stern flatly deny it.

Eric Knudsen, posting under the username "Victor Surge", uploads two edited black-and-white photographs showing a tall, faceless figure in a dark suit near groups of children, adding invented captions that hint at disappearances. He names the figure the Slender Man.

Chief prosecutor Krister Petersson names Stig Engström, a graphic designer known as 'the Skandia Man' who was near the scene and had died in 2000, as the person he believes most likely shot Palme, and closes the case because the suspect is dead.

Outgoing Mossad chief Yossi Cohen, in a Channel 12 interview on the program Uvda, speaks in unusually suggestive terms about Israeli efforts against Iranian nuclear scientists, offering what many read as a near-admission of Israeli responsibility without an explicit confirmation.

The Dutch government publishes steep nitrogen-reduction targets that would force many livestock farms to shrink or close. Farmer protests erupt, and posts recast the policy as a deliberate scheme to end farming and starve the public.

The Paris Court of Appeal rejects the family's bid to hold the French state liable for gross misconduct in botching and closing the original investigation. The family's lawyer says impunity has prevailed; the case remains formally unsolved.