1792 – Maximilien de Robespierre presents the petition of the Commune of Paris to the Legislative Assembly, which demanded the formation of a revolutionary tribunal. Folks, when you see ‘revolutionary tribunal’ it’s time to start shooting folks because these moonbats are serious.

1858 – U.S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new transatlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. However, a weak signal will force a shutdown of the service in a few weeks. All that work, and you get a bad cable. Been there.

1870 – Franco-Prussian War: The Battle of Mars-La-Tour is fought, resulting in a Prussian victory. Germans, outnumbered two to one, whipped up on France. That’s hardly notable. What is notable, though is “perhaps the last successful cavalry charge in Western European warfare”, also known as “Von Bredow’s death ride“. That claim might be argued.

1896 – Skookum Jim Mason, George Carmack and Dawson Charlie discover gold in a tributary of the Klondike River in Canada, setting off the Klondike Gold Rush.

1916 – The Migratory Bird Treaty between Canada and the United States signed. Now we got those stupid geese all over. However, there’s an ‘up’ side – a couple of ’em will make a big pot of FINE gumbo.

1960 – Joseph Kittinger parachutes from a balloon over New Mexico at 102,800 feet (31,330 m – 19.5 miles), setting three records that stood for decades: High-altitude jump, free-fall, and highest speed by a human without an aircraft. I could have done that and made it easier for everybody. They’d have been able to trace my path by the brown streak behind me…

1960 – Republic of Congo (Zaire, Democratic Republic of Congo) forms. If THAT is a “republic”, then I’m Prince Consort to Anastasia, Crown Princess of All the Russias.

1977 – Elvis Presley, the king of rock and roll dies from a drug overdose in his home in Graceland at age 42. He’s the musical “king” that didn’t mess with young boys…

2012 – South African police fatally shoot 34 miners and wound 78 more during an industrial dispute at Marikana near Rustenburg. Things are MUCH better since they did away with the horrible abuses of apartheid, right?

1057 – King Macbeth is killed at the Battle of Lumphanan by the forces of Máel Coluim mac Donnchada. What?!?!? You thought Shakespeare made this stuff up?

1824 – Freed American slaves found Liberia in Africa, begin abusing the natives, setting up their own beacon of liberty and fairness because they’re freed of the white slavemasters. Upon this illustrious foundation, Liberia goes on to become the beacon of freedom, justice and democracy it is today.

1914 – The Panama Canal opens to traffic with the transit of the cargo ship Ancon.

1944 – World War II: Operation Dragoon: Allied forces land in southern France so they can applaud as Charles DeGaulle singlehandedly drives Germany from the country.

1945 – World War II: Victory over Japan (VJ) Day – Japan surrenders, millions of lives are saved.

1947 – India gains independence from the United Kingdom and becomes an independent nation within the Commonwealth.

1948 – The Republic of Korea is established south of the 38th parallel north. It had been under Japanese rule from 1910 until the end of World War II. When I was there in 1969-70, Koreans STILL didn’t have anything nice to say about the Japanese. Or Kim Il Sung.

1960 – Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville) becomes independent from France. Freed of the heavy hand of the white interlopers, the Congo goes on to become a beacon of liberty and fairness in the shining continent of Mother Africa. For example, in 1963 – President Fulbert Youlou is overthrown after a three-day uprising in the capital.

2013 – At least 27 people are killed and 226 injured in an explosion in southern Beirut near a complex used by Lebanon’s militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon. A previously unknown Syrian Sunni group claims responsibility in an online video. In the absence of Jews or Christians, the Moslems will happily slaughter one another.

1880 – Construction of Cologne Cathedral, the most famous landmark in Cologne, Germany, is completed after beginning in 1248. Yep! Over 600 years! Must have been a gubmint job with union contractors!

1893 – France becomes the first country to introduce motor vehicle registration. Makes later iterations of Papieren, bitte! rather ironic, don’t you think?

1935 – United States Social Security Act passes, creating a government pension system for the retired. And we know how that’s gonna end…

1945 – Japan accepts the Allied terms of surrender in World War II and the Emperor records the Imperial Rescript on Surrender (August 15 in Japan Standard Time).

2003 – Widescale power blackout in the northeast United States and Canada. 55 Million people lose power. As we say in the power biz: “Oops!”

2013 – Egypt declares a state of emergency as security forces kill hundreds of demonstrators supporting former president Mohamed Morsi. Part of Arab Spring, a notable Clinton-Obama foreign policy success.

1521 – Tenochtitlán (present day Mexico City) falls to conquistador Hernán Cortés ending the quaint cultural practice of ripping the beating hearts out of prisoners and slaves for the propitiation of Aztec gods. Anyone besides me ever notice how many proponents of the “Aztlan” movement affect Aztec motifs in their dress and literature?

1792 – King Louis XVI of France is formally arrested by the National Tribunal, and declared an enemy of the people. France is in full liberté, egalité, fraternité” mode. Blood will run in the streets as they practice democracy, ‘enlightened’ French style. Our own ‘enlightened’ Left harbors the same thoughts.

1889 – German Ferdinand von Zeppelin patents his “Navigable Balloon”.

1889 – William Gray of Hartford, Connecticut is granted United States Patent Number 408,709 for “Coin-controlled apparatus for telephones.” I haven’t really looked, but I can’t remember the last time I saw a pay phone in the wild.

1918 – Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) established as a public company in Germany. What’s the difference between a BMW and a porcupine? On a porcupine, the pricks are on the outside…

1940 – World War II: Battle of Britain begins – the Luftwaffe launches Adlertag, (Eagle Day) a series of attacks on British fighter bases and radar installations. It was an “iffy” thing, too, but Hitler shifted to civilian targets, allowing the RAF to regroup, and he held back resources to prepare for the invasion of the USSR. (and we can argue about what date the Battle of Britain actually begins, too…)

1942 – Walt Disney’s fifth full-length animated film, Bambi, was released to theaters. Depictions of anthropomorphized animals are taken as reality by the gullible, giving anti-hunters something to point towards forever after.

1960 – The Central African Republic declares independence from France. Definitely ‘central’ and definitely ‘African’, but if they’re a ‘republic’ then I’m an Olympic gymnast.

1961 – The German Democratic Republic closes the border between the eastern and western sectors of Berlin to thwart its inhabitants’ attempts to escape to the West. Making it difficult for people to leave is not the same as making them want to stay…

2004 – One hundred fifty-six Congolese Tutsi refugees are massacred at the Gatumba refugee camp in Burundi. Just Africa being Africa.

2015 – At least 76 people are killed and 212 others are wounded in a truck bombing in Baghdad, Iraq. Just Muslims being Muslims.

1281 – The fleet of Kublai Khan is destroyed by a typhoon while approaching Japan. Divine wind loosely translates in Japanese as “kamikaze”. Where will we hear that term again, class?

1480 – Battle of Otranto: Ottoman Muslim troops behead 800 Christians for refusing to convert to Islam; they are later honored in the Church. 2014 – ISIS beheads, rapes, tortures and slaughters thousands a day and the Leftist anti-Semitic media wants to whine about those pooooor ‘Palestinians’ who want to do the same to Israel.

1658 – First US police force forms in New Amsterdam (later to become New York). Out of necessity, the donut is invented shortly thereafter.

1812 – Dr. Joseph Lister is first surgeon to use disinfectant during surgery. Hey, guys! We can bill extra for this!

1851 – Isaac Singer is granted a patent for his sewing machine and his name becomes almost synonymous with home sewing machines.

1908 – Ford builds the first Model T (without government subsidy).

1914 – World War I: the United Kingdom declares war on Austria-Hungary; the countries of the British Empire follow suit. And that’s why France isn’t speaking German today.

1944 – Alençon is liberated by General Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque, the first city in France to be liberated from the Nazis by French forces using American-supplied equipment. There’s a million or so American, Canadian and British troops backing him up, but this is a FRENCH victory. Later, France names a new tank after Leclerc. It is notable in that it has two forward gears and five reverse.

1952 – The Night of the Murdered Poets: 13 prominent Jewish intellectuals are murdered in Moscow. Stalin was a murderer on the order of Hitler, but he was on the winning side of WW II and was much enamored of the Left, so most people will NEVER hear about it. Read Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin

1955 – President Eisenhower signs law raising minimum wage from 75 cents to $1 an hour.

1960 – Echo I, the first communications satellite, launched. It’s a big shiny metalized balloon so ground stations could bounce microwave signals off of to other ground stations, and VERY visible in the night sky.

1964 – South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games due to the country’s racist policies.

1981 – The IBM Personal Computer is released. The business world takes notice, because “IBM” already makes the REAL computers they use. Computer enthusiasts yawn. Nothing new here… At introduction a PC with 64 kB of RAM and a single 5 1/4 inch floppy drive and monitor sold for US $3,005, the price of a new compact car. Today you can buy a new laptop for the equivalent of fifty bucks in 1981 dollars.

1994 – Major League Baseball players go on strike. This will force the cancellation of the 1994 World Series. Yawn!

1755 – Charles Lawrence gives expulsion orders to remove the Acadians from Nova Scotia beginning the Great Upheaval (Le Grand Dérangement). Left France in the 1600?s. Thrown out of Canada. Bypassed New Orleans because it was too much of the French we left when we went to the New World. So here we are… Cajuns!

1896 – Harvey Hubbell patents electric light bulb socket with a pull chain. Today “Hubbell” is a big name in the American electrical market.

1898 – Spanish–American War: American troops enter the city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. Should’ve let Spain keep the place.

1909 – The Morse coded distress call “SOS” is first used by an American ship, Arapahoe, off Cape Hatteras, NC. Dididit Dahdahdah dididit.

1914 – France declares war on Austria-Hungary. In the precise language of international diplomacy, this is known as “biting off more than you can chew”. Had not Great Britain, and ultimately, the United States, come to France’s rescue, history would have been WAY different. Like with Germany taking France (again…) there would likely be no Adolf Hitler and no WW II.

1929 – Doped up with beer and hot dogs, Babe Ruth becomes the first baseball player to hit 500 home runs in his career with a home run at League Park in Cleveland, Ohio.

1960 – Chad declares independence, and like much of sub-Saharan Africa, if it weren’t for massive influx of foreign dollars and expertise, the place would be full of starving, diseased people. Wait! They’re GETTING the money and the help and they’re STILL starving and diseased. Their politicians, however, are in MUCH better shape with apartments in London and Switzerland.

1968 – The last steam hauled train runs on British railways. Steam was still being used in Germany in the Seventies. I rode into Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels and Baumholder to the sound of steam pistons.

1972 – Vietnam War: the last United States ground combat unit departs South Vietnam. We’re giving peace a chance. Watch how many hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese and Cambodians die from it, not to mention fifty-odd thousand Americans wasted on an ill-managed war.

1984 – “We begin bombing in five minutes” – United States President Ronald Reagan, while running for re-election, jokes while preparing to make his weekly Saturday address on National Public Radio. That’s what we remember from Reagan going off-mike. From Obama we got ‘We’ll be more flexible after the election’. But Trump’s teh one that colluding with the Russians, right?!?