Odd electrical problem- dash/interior lights, nothing else

[The Inflicted]

Last night, I replaced my instrument lighting with LEDs again. The first set I put in lasted around 6 months before the LEDs began to fail, and this new set is of higher quality. As I was working, I was turning the interior lights on and off to test the bulbs, and the dome light was on because I had the driver's side door open. I went to bed without starting the car.

This afternoon, I found that I could not start the car. The dome light was on, and the key chime was working, and I could still turn the instrument and exterior lights off and on, but nothing else was working. The first time I turned the key, the windshield wiper moved about an inch, and then stopped- I must have flipped the stalk accidentally while working last night. The radio would not come on, nor would the fan, and turning the key to start the motor wouldn't even make the solenoid click. Most unusually, the headlights wouldn't come on at all.

So, in summary:

Working:
Key chime
Dome light
Power door locks
Instrument and dash lights (EXCEPT the clock light, which came on briefly, then went out)
Exterior visibility lights

Not working:
Ignition
Climate control
Radio
Headlights
Wipers (after one initial movement).

This confused me, because while most of the systems not working would be in the ignition or accessory circuits, the headlights were not. My first impulse was a low battery, so I attempted to jump off the car, but this didn't seem to be the problem, as connecting a running car made no sparks at all when connect up the power, and I hadn't really done anything that should have drained the battery to the point where the car wouldn't crank, even a smidgen.

I checked the fusable links, and they appeared corroded, but otherwise fine and certainly not burned out. The only one I pulled out to examine closely was the 75a one. Also checked all battery connections (mine is relocated to the trunk) and the little button that the clutch pushes.
After about an hour of messing around I tried to crank it again, and found that the key was harder to turn, and needed some jiggling. After that, it all came back- headlights, radio, and the car started, with a little bit of difficulty.

So, that's the most worrisome thing- the problem seemed to resolve itself.
Anyone have any idea what was going on here? Could I have loosened some sort of wiring harness when pulling out the instrument cluster? I've done that multiple times in the past and never had a problem like this one. Something wrong with the wiring in the key switch might explain most of the problems, but not the headlights, which are independent of the key switch's position, right?

The car's working fine, NOW, but I'm not looking to being away from home or needing to get to work and the car breaking itself again.

[centralcoaster33]

It sounds like the accessories system is not getting power. These are the things that turn on when your turn the key to the second position and to the on position, but are momentarily turned off when you actually start the car (key all the way right to engage the starter). Did you take apart some of your steering collumn? I'm suspicious of your ignition switch (the plastic switch on the back of your key cylinder). They're like $30 I think. Yes, headlights are on a seperate system, but without looking at a wiring diagram, I can't say for sure that they don't have a common link somewhere for like a relay or something. When the ignition switch starts going bad, it creates intermittent issues like this. My key cylinder got gummed up and I couldn't turn it reliably, so I took it off and used a screwdriver to turn the ignition switch. That worked for a while until eventually the switch internals got messed up and I needed to replace it all.