August 31

1535 - Pope Paul II deposed and excommunicated England's King Henry VIII.

**I’m sure Hank was really broken up by this...Hardly.**
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1919 - John Reed formed the American Communist Labor Party.

**I’ve always wondered why the Democrat Party celebrated on August 31...LOL!**
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1935 - President Franklin Roosevelt signed an act prohibiting the export of U.S. arms to belligerents.

**You’d think businesses would follow this line of reasoning on their own...But business is amoral, and has no problem doing deals with the Devil as long as the Devil shows up with cash. Which is all the more evident, because this law has been more or less ignored since the day it was enacted.**
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1964 - President Lyndon Johnson signed the Food Stamp Act, greatly expanding the role of the federal government by giving food coupons to needy families.

**This sounds like a nice program, but it has been abused to the point of it being a disgrace...Plus, there is the little known fact about the program being founded to help the agricultural industry more than its public pronouncement of helping the poor.**
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1980 - After two months of strikes, the Polish government agreed to reforms including recognition of the Solidarity trade union.

**The Poles were way ahead of the game when it came to breaking the chains of Communism...Lucky for them, the Ruskies were much weaker than they were in the 1960’s, or 1980 Poland may have looked like 1968 Czechoslovakia.**
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1994 - Russia officially ended its military presence in the former East Germany and the Baltic states after half a century of dominance.

**Unfortunately, that half-century of being occupied by the Dogs of Hell can’t be erased, or its importance minimized.**
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1996 - Seven people drowned when their vehicle rolled into John D. Long Lake in Union, South Carolina; they had gone to see a monument to the sons of Susan Smith, who had drowned the two boys in October 1994.

**This isn’t a big event at all, but it is sad...It is important, however, because it shows why there are so many yearly candidates for the Darwin Awards.**
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1998 - North Korea launched a missile over Japan without permission.

**Dr. Ill was getting loose with his new toys...Yippeeeeeeeeeee!

The Clinton Administration soon gave him nukes to add to his toy-box. Maybe next time the 'Loony-Toon' can launch a toy with a nuclear-tipped warhead...WooooHooo!**
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1999 - Detroit's teachers went on strike, wiping out the first day of class for 172,000 students in one of the largest teachers' strikes in years. The walkout lasted nine days.

**Gotta love a bunch of adults using children as pawns...They should have all been replaced.**

August 30

30 B.C. (Debated date, often listed as August 31) – Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, committed suicide by letting a poisonous snake bite her breast.

**Cleopatra was a master politician, and even though she was quite ugly was able to use the power of seduction to keep Rome at bay for many years...Both Caesar and Mark Antony fell under her spell, but she made the mistake of not being able to captivate the one man she needed: Octavian.

As a result of her failure with Octavian, Antony was defeated and Rome claimed Egypt.

FYI: I hope you know Cleopatra was a Greek/Macedonian, not Egyptian...She descended from the Ptolemaic Dynasty, the Macedonian rulers who succeeded Alexander the Great in Egypt.**
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1146 - European leaders outlawed the crossbow intending to end war for all time.

**Ending war has long been a hope, and has been nothing more than a Utopian pipe-dream.

As long as human-beings exist on the planet there will be war...By nature we are animals. It just happens to be that we are animals with the capacity to fight on a much grander scale than any other animal.**
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1932 - Hermann Goring was elected Chairman of the Reichstag.

**The Nazi strategy of conquering Germany through the ballot-box and constitutional means was truly brilliant.

Goring was in the process of dominating the legislative branch, and Hitler the executive. It wasn't long before the charade ended, and they assumed absolute power.

THE NAZIS WERE VOTED IN!!!!!

An amazing fact, which must always be remembered, because under the proper conditions it could happen again...It could happen here in the U.S., too.**
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1941 - The Siege of Leningrad began when Nazi forces cut off the last rail link between Leningrad and the rest of the Soviet Union.

**This siege was part of the overall battle, and signaled the isolation of Leningrad from the rest of the Soviet Union.

The Germans decimated Leningrad, and the city should have died. Almost a million Soviets did...In fact, more Soviets died in this single battle than Americans died in World War I and II combined.

How the city held out for 2 ½ years is amazing, and a testament to a people with an unconquerable will…I highly recommend you buy and read 'The 900 Days'.**
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1963 - The 'Hot Line' communication link between Washington and Moscow went into operation.

**This is an early warning system in case of an accidental missile launch...Question is, if it ever had to be used would either side believe it was an accident? And how would they react?**
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1982 - PLO leader Yasir Arafat bid an emotional farewell to Beirut and left for Greece. Carrying a large olive branch, Arafat began his last day in Beirut with a farewell courtesy call on the headquarters of the People's Socialist Party.

**Check out this ‘great man of peace’ walking around with an olive branch...Arafat was nothing more than a 'Hitler in a headdress,' and I hope his ’72 virgins’ are goats.**
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1995 - NATO forces pounded the Bosnian Serbs with artillery and air attacks in hopes of bludgeoning them into serious peace talks.

**How come we never hear from Liberals about Clinton's indiscriminate bombing of 'innocent civilians' in Bosnia and Serbia?? Hmmmm???

Oh, I forgot: Bombs with (R) = Bad, Bombs with (D) = Good.**
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1997 - Americans (and others in the Western Hemisphere) learned of the deaths of Princess Diana, her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, and their driver, Henri Paul, in a car crash in a Paris traffic tunnel. Bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones survived. (Because of the time difference, it was the morning of August 31st in Paris when Diana was pronounced dead.)

**This event was the second most most overblown media event in my lifetime...After O.J., of course.

I feel sorry for these three deaths, but the media coverage was a complete joke.**

August 29 (A Triple)

30 (traditional date) - St. John, the Baptist, was beheaded.

**John was the first Christian martyr...There were many more, including Christ himself in a few years.**
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70 - Romans burned the gates and entered the courtyard of the Second Temple of Jerusalem.

**It was almost 1,900 years before the Jews reclaimed their home...It’s important they rebuild the Temple, in my opinion. Sadly, I don't see it happening.

It's also likely they'll have to perpetually fight for the survival of their modern state, as well...Sadly, I don't see this ending well, either.**
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1533 - Atahualpa, last of the Inca rulers, was strangled under orders of Spanish conqueror Francisco Pizarro.

**The Incan Empire ended on this day, and the Spanish Empire assumed absolute control over much of South America...The natives should have never let the invaders get past the beach. Failing to follow this simple 'First Rule of Invasions' cost them their civilization.**
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1842 - The Treaty of Nanjing was signed between the British and Chinese, ending the first Opium War. The treaty confirmed the ceding of Hong Kong to Britain.

**This was the first of the 'Unequal Treaties' China signed with the various world powers. These treaties destroyed much of China’s sovereignty, and were known as unequal because China wasn’t treated as an equal partner by those it was forced to deal with.**
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1852 - The Latter Day Saints first published their doctrine of 'celestial marriage;' polygamy. The Mormon Church maintained this teaching until the Manifest of 1890 (and later Congressional legislation) outlawed the practice.

**Unfortunately for Mormons, this is an issue which continues to cause discomfort for most Americans with Mormonism...Many aspects of the LDS are misunderstood, or understood but disliked, but it is polygamy which sets it firmly apart from traditional American religious life.**
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1862 – The Second Battle of Bull Run (Manassas).

**This battle began on the 28th and ended on the 30th, but was decided on this date.

General John Pope and 75,000 Federal troops were defeated by 55,000 Confederate troops under Generals Stonewall Jackson and James Longstreet in another Union debacle which had the possibility of ending the Civil War early on.

Unfortunately, President Lincoln hadn’t found the commanding general it would take to defeat Lee and the Confederates...He had to wait till 1863 before Grant stepped up at Vicksburg.**
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1944 - 15,000 American troops marched down the Champs Elysees in Paris as the French capital continued to celebrate its liberation from the Nazis.

**If 15 American troops marched through today, they’d be cackled and booed...Bunch of ungrateful scumbags. If it weren’t for Americans the French would be speaking German, or either bars of soap or lampshades.**
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1949 - The Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb.

**It was going to happen eventually (between the German scientists and American traitors), but it was a sad day for the people of the world when the Soviet Hell State proved it conquered the atom.**
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2005 - Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. Gulf Coast; primarily Louisiana and Mississippi. The death toll from Katrina reached over 1,000 and property damage estimates were in the hundreds of billions of dollars.

**Hurricane Katrina was a terrible natural catastrophe and a boondoggle of epic proportions on the state and federal level...It was also an event which was going to happen eventually and when it did was going to cause massive suffering due to the fact New Orleans is considerably below sea-level.

I hope you will go to my Hurricane Katrina - Four Years Later post.**

August 28

388 - Magnus Maximus, usurping Roman Emperor, was executed by Theodosius.

**Ho hum. Another coup attempt in the Empire...Which was slowly falling apart by this time.**
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430 - St. Augustine of Hippo died.

**St. Augustine was the greatest of the Latin 'Fathers of the Church'...His book, 'City of God' was the foundation for what became the Catholic Church of the Middle Ages, which dominated Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire.**
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1565 - The oldest city in the U.S., St. Augustine, Fla., was established.

**FYI.**
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1938 - The Mauthausen Concentration Camp opened in Austria.

**This camp was nowhere near the scale of Auschwitz, but Mauthausen was a monster; the site of over 120,000 exterminated Jews at the hands of the ‘master race.’**
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1963 - 200,000 people participated in a peaceful civil rights rally in Washington D.C., where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his 'I Have a Dream' speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

**16-minutes of pure American brilliance.

Like many great American leaders, Dr. King was no saint, but he was a great American.

His means, methods and quest were everything America should hope to be, and maybe will become...Too bad so many of his contemporaries and successors were/are nowhere near up to the challenge of polishing off his message, and instead have chosen to bastardize it.

I hope you can find 16-minutes in your day to listen to his speech...I HAVE A DREAM .**
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1990 - Iraq declared Kuwait the 19th province of Iraq, renaming Kuwait City Kadhima and creating a new district named after Saddam Hussein.

**Saddam liked to think of himself as a modern-day Babylonian conqueror (like Sargon the Great) and ‘conquering’ Kuwait was the first of his goals.

He should have known the U.S. would never allow him to move toward the Saudis, though...We probably would have allowed him to play with Iran or Syria, but Kuwait and Saudi Arabia were out of the question.**

August 27

413 B.C. - An Athenian army besieging Syracuse failed to retreat because of an eclipse, and was later trapped and destroyed.

**The Athenians thought the world was coming to an end...Or at worst thought their gods were surrendering to those of their enemy.

This seems odd to us, but perfectly reasonable to the people of the time.**
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1859 - Colonel Edwin L. Drake drilled the first successful oil well in the United States near Titusville, Pennsylvania.

**Who knows how much oil we have in the U.S. and it's territories? It’s very likely we are sitting on enough to make ourselves self-sufficient for this necessary resource...But we choose not drill in earnest here in the States, and would rather be at the mercy of the very scoundrels who wish us to be dead.

I’ll never understand the insanity of environMENTAList Liberalism.**
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1928 - The Kellogg-Briand Pact was signed by 15 nations, outlawing war as a means to settle international disputes.

**What a joke!!!

History has shown this 'pact' did nothing but weaken the very powers who were necessary to stand up to the bad-guys of the world...Which in a decade were the Nazis and Japanese.**
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1939 - Adolf Hitler served notice to England and France that Germany wanted Danzig and the Polish Corridor.

**The morons in France and England thought they bought 'peace in their time' with the handover of Czechoslovakia, but the Fuhrer wanted nothing to do with peace...He pushed and pushed until he had his war.

And make no mistake, Hitler picked this date as a way of mocking the Kellog-Briand Pact.**
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1939 - The world's first jet-propelled aeroplane, the Heinkel He-178, made its first flight at Marienehe, Germany.

**Commercial and military planes soon abandoned the old prop-style plane to take advantage of the speed and power of the jet...Thankfully Hitler was too much of a moron to listen to his science advisers, and refused to invest much in the production of these jets, which might have allowed him to be able to use Germany's technical superiority to overcome the numerical plane disadvantage he had against the Allies.**

August 26

55 B.C. - Roman forces under Julius Caesar invaded Britain.

**Caesar was well on his way toward conquering Gaul, and needed another challenge...He also needed another source of enhancing his revenue and reputation.

Never forget, Caesar was the least known and accomplished of the Triumvirs (Pompey, Crassus and Caesar)...He had to prove his worth to the Roman people, and had the military skill to do just that.

Also, it's important to know the Romans never conquered Britain...They subjugated parts of the south, but never held a firm rule.**
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580 - The Chinese invented toilet paper.

**I'd say this is worth noting...Must have been a shitty world before this time.**
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1278 - The Battle of Marchfeld: Rudolf of Habsburg defeated Ottokar II.

**This was one of the many battles between the Turks and the Austrians, and wouldn't normally be of note...What makes this battle important is it's considered the beginning of the not-so-rapid incline in Habsburg political influence.**
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1346 - The Battle of Crecy.

**Crecy was a battle during the Hundred Years War between England and France, and a turning point in military history...It is also one of the most decisive victories ever for a force with far inferior numbers: The English had about 9,000 troops compared to the French 27,000, yet the English crushed the French.

The English had two weapons which changed warfare forever, ending the age of the armored knight and marking the beginning of the end of chivalry: The longbow and the cannon.

Longbows had been in use by many nations, but none used it in mass as the English did.

Small hand-cannons had been in use for awhile in Europe, and for centuries in China, but Crecy marks the first time in history where field cannons were used in battle...They were crude and quite small, but none-the-less a powerful weapon, and one which was coveted by every nation from this point on.

The use of the longbow in mass along with cannons made armor a pretty useless form of defense and also increased the volume of the killing field...The use of cannons also spelled the end of the effective defensive use of castles and other traditional walled defenses.**
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1914 - The Battle of Tannenberg ended (began August 17): The German Eighth Army defeated the Russian Army.

**Tannenberg was one of the first large battles in WWI...And one the Germans won handily.

Hindenburg and Ludendorff proved to be far superior to any Russian field commander, but it also didn't hurt that the Ruskies transmitted their battle plans over radio-waves, and didn't bother to encrypt them so the Germans didn't know their plan...Doh!**
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1957 - The Soviet Union announced it successfully tested an inter-continental ballistic missile.

**Global Reach = Global Power!**
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1993 - Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman and 14 co-defendants entered innocent pleas in federal court a day after their indictment on charges of conspiring to wage terrorism against the United States.

**I thought the Islamists didn’t hate the U.S. until G.W. took power? Hmmm. Must be a mistake here...NOT!**

August 25 (A Double)

291 B.C. - Poison gas was first used in warfare, by the Chinese.

**”War is all Hell” - General William T. Sherman...Sherman was correct, and as such war should be about winning. Nations shouldn't go to war unless they are willing to risk extermination.

Yes, I know this makes me a super-radical, but if people fully understood the possible results of going to war there would likely be fewer of them.**
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325 - The Council Of Nicaea ended with the adoption of the Nicene Creed, establishing the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.

**The Church has had many meetings of doctrine and practice, but few have been as important as this one...Many precedents were established at Nicaea, and none were more important than the issue of the Trinity and date of Easter.

"The question, touching the day for the celebration of the Feast of Easter, was settled. It was to be kept on the first Sunday after the first ‘Calendar’ full moon, happening upon, or next after, the 21st of March; and if the full moon happened on a Sunday, Easter-day was to be the next Sunday following.”**
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716 - The Siege of Constantinople began.

**This is one of the many 'sieges' of the great city, and one it survived. Amazingly the Byzantines held out against the Muslim Horde for another 800+ years!!!**
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1940 - The British Air Force dropped its first bombs on Berlin during a World War II overnight raid.

**There were many more to come...Especially when the Americans finally got in the game.**
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1944 - Paris was liberated when the local German commander, General Choltitz, surrendered to the allies.

**The French still haven’t recovered from being rescued by the Brits and Americans...It’s not beyond the realm of possibility they’d rather have remained German than be saved by these two.**
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1950 - President Truman ordered the U.S. Army to seize control of the nation's railroads to avert a strike.

**Of course he did. Unions can’t be allowed to break the nation’s infrastructure...Which is exactly why Reagan stuck it to the air traffic controllers in the 1980’s.**
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1989 - Congressman Barney Frank acknowledged hiring a male prostitute as a personal employee, then firing him after suspecting the aide was selling sex from Frank's apartment.

**I’m sure the good people of (Du)Massachusetts love having a Congressman with a whore house...Can you imagine if this were a Republican soliciting sex instead of a Democrat doing so?

I’m sure this makes me a Right-Wing radical, too.**
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1999 - The FBI reversed itself after six years, admitting its agents might have fired some potentially flammable tear gas canisters on the final day of the 1993 standoff with the Branch Davidians near Waco, Texas, but said it continued to believe law enforcement agents did not start the fire which engulfed the cult's compound.

**Which is exactly why Janet Reno is properly known as Janet 'Sterno'...Can you imagine if Bush did anything like this?**

August 24 (A Quadruple)

79 - Mount Vesuvius erupted, burying the Roman cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae in volcanic ash, killing an estimated 20,000 people.

**The power of the planet showed its ugly face…Earth is truly a 'Mother,' and over time will destroy, recycle and recreate another world. As it has done many, many times in the past.**
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410 - Rome was overrun by the Visigoths, an event often used to symbolize the Fall of the Western Roman Empire.

**The 'Fall of Rome' is a difficult issue, and those who pay attention probably think I’ve repeated this matter over and over, on different events...Which is partially true.

There was no defining event signifying the end of the Empire, but a series of events which brought it down...378 should be marked as the beginning of the end (Battle of Adrianople), and 410 should be seen as the end of the beginning.

From 400-476 Rome was invaded by a succession of varying groups (Vandals, Suevis, Alans, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Burgundians, Franks, Huns, etc., etc.)

It’s a miracle Rome lasted till 476, the date most historians use for the fall of the Western Empire, not 410...By the way, remember the Empire wasn't destroyed at all in the 400's, because it continued in the east (Byzantines) for another thousand plus years.**
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1349 - Blamed for the plague, 6,000 Jews were killed in Mainz.

**If in doubt blame it on the Jews...Some things never change.**
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1524 - The Peasant's War began.

**This war was an outpouring of the peasant class (most of the populace) in the Holy Roman Empire (German states), and a natural result of the general 'protestation' against the Church.**
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1572 - The Massacre of St. Bartholomew (August 23 and 24) killed as many as 50,000 Huguenots in Paris and its provinces. Urged on by the queen mother Catherine de' Medici, Catholics disemboweled the young king's adviser Gaspard, Admiral de Coligny, and threw him from his window still alive. Pope Gregory XIII and all the Catholic powers congratulated Catherine, and the Pope commanded that bonfires be lit to celebrate the massacre, which he called "better than 50 Battles of Lepanto."

**So much for the Religion of Peace...Ooops. Wrong religion.

But in reality, the Church of the Middle Ages was much closer to that of modern-day Islam in its behavior than modern day Christianity.

If you don't get the Battle of Lepanto reference you aren't paying attention...But you can find it here.**
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1814 - British troops under General Robert Ross captured Washington, D.C., which they set fire to in retaliation for the American burning of the parliament building in York (Toronto), capital of Upper Canada.

**A little ‘tit-for-tat’...It’s terrible most Americans don’t understand the importance of the War of 1812, but it must be looked at as a continuation of the American Revolution, and an absolute statement of the young nation’s ability to defend its sovereignty.**
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1894 - The U.S. Congress passed the first graduated income tax law, which was declared unconstitutional the next year.

**UNCONSTITUTIONAL IS RIGHT!!!! Until the Leftist lawyers took over the courts that is.**
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1954 - The Communist Control Act went into effect, virtually outlawing the Communist Party in the United States.

**No one bothered to tell the Democrats.**
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1966 - The U.S. Congress passed the Laboratory Animal Welfare Act. The intent of the original act was to protect owners of animals but by subsequent amendments and enforcement, the intent has shifted to protecting the animals.

**What’s really insane is the same clowns who push to protect animals are the same fools who push to do as many abortions and Mengelian science projects on fetuses as possible.

”Lunatic Fringe, we all know you’re out there…” - Red Ryder.**
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1968 - France became the world's fifth thermonuclear power, exploding a hydrogen bomb in the South Pacific.

**Just what the world needed. I'm sure they'll hand over their nukes to the next invader they roll over for.**
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1970 - A bomb planted by anti-war extremists exploded at the University of Wisconsin's Army Math Research Center in Madison, killing 33-year-old researcher Robert Fassnacht.

**Bunch of John Kerry, Jane Fonda, Bill Clinton SOB’s.

This should be looked at as an act of sedition, and put down with the most harsh methods imaginable...But the Democrats won’t allow it, because it is their 'base' and kindred of spirit.**
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1989 - Baseball Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti banned Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose from baseball for life after having been caught gambling.

**Pete Rose was, and should have been, banned for life...When he dies he should go in the Hall of Fame, as should Joe Jackson (who’s been dead for quite awhile). Both were given 'lifetime bans,' but should be in the Hall after they die.

That said, which is worse: Rose betting, or the cheating bastards who took steroids?**
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1991 - Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as head of the Communist Party, culminating a stunning Kremlin shakeup which followed the failed coup by hard-liners.

**Who could have ever foreseen the USSR dying a quiet death...Lenin and Stalin had to be rolling over in their graves.**
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1999 - President Bill Clinton declared a war on tobacco, taking aim at teen smoking with new limits on the cigarette industry.

**Sounds logical too me...Smoking is a terrible habit.

But how can the government 'go to war with tobacco' yet continue to subsidize the industry??? I guess the economy is more important than health...Which is fine, but we should be honest about the issue.**

August 23 (A Huge Day)

476 - Odoacer was elected 'King of Italy' by Germanic barbarians.

**Odoacer, chief of the Heruli tribe, finally put an end to the Roman Empire by forcing the abdication of Emperor Romulus Augustus...He could have claimed the title himself, but knew it was a useless honor and more of a death-sentence than anything else.

It’s important to note Odaocer was of Germanic origin (really he was half Hun, half Scirian), and not only ended the Roman Era in Western Europe, but also began the Germanic Era which still exists.**
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1305 - William Wallace, Scottish patriot and a leader of the struggle against the English, was hanged, disemboweled, beheaded and quartered in London.

**Such was justice in the Middle Ages...Or the modern-day Muslim world.**
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1833 - Britain abolished slavery in its colonies, freeing 700,000 slaves.

**It’s impossible to minimize the importance of Britain banning slavery, and the role it played in ending the African Slave Trade...As the world’s greatest sea-power, the Brits did much to keep the slave trade from prospering by policing the Atlantic and Caribbean.**
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1927 - Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed in Boston for the murders of two men during a 1920 robbery. Both were vindicated in 1977 by Massachusetts Governor Michael S. Dukakis.

**These two have become a favorite cause celeb for Liberal jackals, who claim the two were scapegoated as Communists, and wrongly executed...They may or may not have been Commies, but they were anarchist scum.

Sacco even admitted it at his trial: "I would not wish to a dog or a snake, to the most low and misfortunate creature of the earth - I would not wish to any of them what I have had to suffer for things that I am not guilty of. But my conviction is that I have suffered for things that I am guilty of. I am suffering because I am a radical, and indeed I am a radical."

That's good enough for me. And I love the judges remarks describing the two as "anarchist bastards" - Judge Webster Thayer.**
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1939 - Joseph Stalin and German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop signed a non-aggression pact between the Soviet Union and Germany, freeing Hitler to invade Poland and Stalin to invade Finland.

**Stalin sold what little soul he had to the Devil; hard to believe someone was actually worse than Uncle Joe...As a result the Soviets paid the price for doing so in less than a year when Hitler unleashed his ultimate plan of destroying the Soviet Union.**
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1942 - The Battle of Stalingrad began.

**Note: Other dates are often listed as the start of the battle (as early as August 19), because battle lines and skirmishes happened before the 23rd, but this is the day the battle got hot.

The Germans were beginning the greatest, most brutal battle in world history, and it didn’t turn out well for the 12-Year Reich...In fact it became the great reversal of the Eastern Theatre, and one of the main turning points of the war.

Stalingrad wasn’t strategically necessary for the Germans, but Hitler insisted on destroying the city of Stalin’s name.

The Wehrmacht knew it would be a horrible battle, because its supply logistics would be a complete mess, but Luftwaffe chief (Goering) insisted he’d be able to supply the army from the sky...The Fat Field Marshal failed Hitler in the Battle of Britain, and did likewise at Stalingrad as well.

The battle ended on February 2, 1943, and the statistics are amazing:

The Germans lost over 850,000 troops. The Soviets lost between 750,000-1,500,000 troops and 40,000-150,000 civilians (the numbers vary, because the Soviets were notorious liars).

I can’t tell you how much I recommend you read about the Battle of Stalingrad...Click here to read more about this battle.**
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1944 - Romania was liberated from Nazi occupation

**I must state the obvious, again: Beware when you read of any kind of 'liberation' by the Soviets...The Romanians may or may not have been better off under Soviet domination, but they surely weren’t 'liberated.'**
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1991 - In the wake of a failed coup by hard-liners in the Soviet Union, President Mikhail Gorbachev and Russian President Boris Yeltsin acted to strip the Communist Party of its power and take control of the army and the KGB.

**How do you spell the end of any dictatorship? When its marriage with the military and intelligence agencies are split...This was a very foresighted event.**

August 22 (A Huge Day)

Almost every event is one which would be the biggest on most days...So, I'm highlighting them all
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634 - Caliph Abu Bakr died.

**Abu was one of Muhammad’s closest companions, one of the first to convert to Islam, and the prophet’s successor, assuming the title of Caliph.

Bakr’s succession also marks the beginning of the division of Islam into Sunni and Shiite camps...The Shi’a felt Muhammad’s cousin, Ali ibn Abu Talib, was the rightful successor. This division has been a source of contention since this time, and to this day continues to divide Islam.**
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1485 - The Battle of Bosworth Field: Ended the War of the Roses, after England's King Richard III was killed in battle. This victory also established the Tudor Dynasty.

**The War of the Roses started out as a war of succession between the Houses of York and Lancaster, but it was the Tudors who managed to outmaneuver both...It was also the Tudors who led England towards becoming one of the great empires in world history.**
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1642 - The English Civil War, between the supporters of Charles I (Royalists or Cavaliers) and Parliament (Roundheads), began.

**The start of this war resulted in a nine year series of wars in England, which killed an estimated 10% of the English, Scottish and Irish population...Like the War of the Roses, a third party emerged the victor: Oliver Cromwell.**
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1775 - King George III proclaimed the American colonies were in a state of open rebellion, his first acknowledgment of the American Revolution.

**Try to imagine the disgust George must have had at the thought of the outcasts in the colonies taking him on...The Brits were the greatest power in the world at this time, and there was no way the rag-tag band in North America could defeat him. Or could they?**
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1862 - "My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that." - President Lincoln (letter to Horace Greeley)

**I hope you understand this reality...It’s not a knock on Lincoln, but it is reality.**
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1941 - German troops reached the outskirts of Leningrad, eventually surrounding the city on September 8 at the start of the siege, which lasted until January 1944.

**Preparations for the beginning of one of the most awesome battles in history were being taken...There’s no way a city could take 900-days, or could it?**
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1944 - Hitler ordered the destruction of Paris.

**The Allies had broken out in France, and the route was beginning to take form. So, Der Fuhrer made the order, and he intended for it to be followed...Luckily for the French, General Dietrich von Choltitz was on the receiving end of this order instead of Reinhard Heydrich.

Heydrich (the Butcher of Prague, the Blond Beast, the Hangman) was given orders to take over the occupation of France in 1942, but didn’t make it there because the Czechs assassinated him before he got the chance.

The French owe the Czechs a massive amount of thanks, because there is no doubt Heydrich would have followed Hitler’s orders and thoroughly destroyed Paris...And then some.**
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1945 - Soviet troops landed at Port Arthur and Dairen on the Kwantung Peninsula in China.

**This event was pretty uneventful, but it is important.

It’s important because the war was over (V-J Day was on August 15). But the Soviets weren’t about to miss an opportunity to make a last ditch land-grab, and reach for more political control in the East...Imagine if we hadn’t dropped the A-Bombs. Uncle Joe would have had a field-day in East Asia.**
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1996 - President Bill Clinton signed welfare legislation ending guaranteed cash payments to the poor and demanding work from recipients, ending "welfare as we know it."

**'The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996,' was a major political feat, and Clinton must be given credit for signing off on the Republican bill.

It was good for America as a whole, and also good for individuals using welfare...Being tied to the government should be a last resort, and being forced to work is a tool towards self improvement for these individuals.

It may not happen again, so I want to repeat it loud and clear: THANK YOU PRESIDENT CLINTON!**

August 21

1192 - Minamoto Yoritomo founded the Japanese Shogunate.

**The Shogunate ruled Japan from this period until the 1868 Meiji Restoration.

Shogun = "Barbarian-quelling Great General"...We could use a few of these on our borders.**
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1858 - The famous debates between Senatorial contenders Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas began.

**The Lincoln-Douglas Debates are some of the most famous in American history...Douglas won the debates, but Lincoln made an excellent showing, and helped put the newly founded Republican Party on the map.

Even though Douglas won the senatorial election in 1858, Lincoln proved himself the eventual victor by winning the presidency in 1860.**
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1945 - President Truman ended the Lend-Lease program, which shipped about $50 billion in aid to America's allies during World War II.

**$50 billion in Lend Lease Aid and from 1948-51 and another $13 billion from the Marshall Plan...Also, lets not forget it was the Americans who kept Hitler from conquering all of Europe in WWII, and the same Americans who kept Stalin from conquering all of Europe after WWII.

Yet the ungrateful Euro son's of bitches despise us...JEALOUSY will do that.**
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1987 - Sergeant Clayton Lonetree, the first Marine ever court-martialed for spying, was convicted in Quantico, Virginia, of passing secrets to the KGB after becoming romantically involved with a Soviet woman while serving as a U.S. Embassy guard in Moscow.

**You'd think a Marine caught spying against the U.S. would be executed...Right?

Nah, he was let out of prison in 1996...What a pathetic joke.**
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1991 - The hard-line coup against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev collapsed in the face of a popular uprising led by Russian Federation President Boris N. Yeltsin.

**The Soviets were at the end of their rope...It's too bad they weren't swinging from it.**

August 20

1191 - Richard I, King of England, ordered the execution of 2,500 Muslim prisoners beneath the walls of Acre.

**There's no way to deny the Crusaders had moments of pure barbarity...This was one.**
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1741 - Alaska was discovered by Danish explorer Vitus Bering.

**Bering was a Dane, but sailed under the Russian flag...Thankfully the Ruskies were shortsighted enough to sell Alaska to the U.S. Try to image the Soviets with a toehold on the North American continent. That would have been a problem.

FYI: Bering was known by the name of Ivan Ivanovich by the Russians.**
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1866 - President Andrew Johnson formally declared the Civil War over, even though the fighting stopped months earlier.

**Wars never end when the armistice is declared...There's always mop-up work to be done by the victor.**
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1940 - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill paid tribute to the Royal Air Force, saying, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."

**Lets look at a quick statistic:

At the beginning of the battle the Brits had around 700 fighter planes...The Krauts had 1,260 bombers; 316 dive-bombers; 1,089 fighters.

How the Brits survived the initial wave of attack under such horrible odds, is amazing...But they did. Which forced Hitler to change his plans.

As a result of losing the Battle of Britain, Hitler had to scrap Operation Sealion (the invasion of Britain), and began looking East...Operation Barbarossa (the invasion of the USSR) soon followed. A decision which changed the war.

In effect, it's not much of a stretch to say the Brits won the war by winning the Battle of Britain.**
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1940 - Exiled Russian Leon Trotsky was assassinated in Mexico City, with an ice pick to the back of the head, by one of Stalin's hired assassins.

**Trotzky was exiled in 1929, and had been hiding since. It wasn't in Stalin's nature to let him live in peace, however, and only a matter of time before the 'ice pick' found its mark...Trotsky died the next day.

FYI: Trotsky is in no way a hero of mine, but I admit to stealing his nickname: 'PERO' = 'The Pen'.**
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1964 - President Lyndon Johnson signed a nearly $1 billion anti-poverty measure, the Economic Opportunity Act, which created 'Head Start,' 'Vista,' and other 'Great Society' programs.

**Sounds nice, but what has been the result of all these UTOPIAN programs? There's still plenty of poverty, especially among children.

Just another case of Liberal idiots throwing good money after bad.**
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1968 - The Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact nations began invading Czechoslovakia to crush the 'Prague Spring' liberalization drive of Alexander Dubcek's regime.

**The Ruskies weren't screwing around, and had no intention of allowing one their satellite states to dabble in capitalism or freedom...Because both are vaccines and therapies against Communism.**
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1998 - U.S. cruise missiles hit suspected terrorist bases in Afghanistan and the Sudan.

**Thank God President Bubba was tough on terror...What a joke!!!!**

August 19 (A Double)

480 B.C. – The Battle of Thermopylae ended: Persian forces finally overran the heavily outnumbered Spartan defenders of the narrow pass at Thermopylae in Greece.

NOTE: This event was also posted on August 9...The date is often debated, and many note it in September. I am posting it again on purpose, because it is one of my favorite battles in, and it is one of the greatest battles in world history; a battle with many far-reaching results.

1. The Persians suffered so many casualties, and this was their best opportunity of crushing the Greeks before they mounted a nationwide defense...They fought many more battles, but this was the beginning of the end.

2. Sparta lost its great king (Leonidas) and suffered such a loss to its finest forces it wasn't strong enough to continue the traditional role as the leader (hegemon) of the Greek city-state following the war.

3. As a result of Persian losses at the battle, the Athenians were able to win the rest of the war...And as a result of Spartan losses, Athens was able to establish itself as the Greek hegemon, which eventually led to the Peloponnesian War.

A few details of the battle: The Spartans had around 300 troops and about 7,000 allied forces, which suffered over 4,000 casualties, including all but one Spartan. The Persians had 3,400,000 troops and suffered around 30,000 casualties...Alright, Herodotus probably exaggerated a little on the 3.4 million, but it is estimated the Persians had at least 170,000 troops.**
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14 - Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar died.

**Augustus was an incredibly important figure in history...He was Julius Caesar’s hand-picked (adopted) successor, and the man who put the final end to the Roman Republic, establishing the Roman Empire.

Also, his 40-year reign began an unprecedented time of peace, known as the Pax Romana (the Roman Peace)...A peace enforced by Rome.

Unfortunately for the Empire, there were few emperors of Augustus’ skill and Augustus didn’t establish a method for peaceful succession, which wreaked havoc on the Empire for the rest of its days.**
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1503 - Pope Alexander VI died accidentally of poison intended for a guest.

**Such was papal politics in the Middle Ages...Which is why the Reformation had to come.**
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1936 - The Purges: Generals Kamenev and Zinovjev were tried for 'Trotskyism.'

**The Purges were Stalin’s way of eliminating his enemies, and the 1930’s saw an awesome display of his power through the purging of the Communist Party and officer corp of the Soviet military.

Sadly, but predictably, the Soviet Union paid dearly for these purges when Hitler invaded, because the Soviet military was in complete disarray due to lack of experienced leadership.**
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1942 - The German Sixth Army was ordered to capture Stalingrad.

**The city of Stalingrad wasn’t a necessary objective for the Germans, but Der Fuhrer wanted to eliminate the city of Joseph Stalin's name...No one ever accused Hitler of being a strategic genius, and he insisted on ordering his troops into what became the largest, most bloody battle in world history.

The result was awesome, brutal, and the turning-point in the war on this front.**
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1944 - President Franklin Roosevelt sent an envoy to China to reconcile problems between the Nationalists and Communists.

**Too little, too late...There was no reconciliation of the two factions, and truth be told both used WWII as a stockpiling, recruiting, and training ground for their war which followed The War.**
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1991 - Soviet hard-liners announced President Mikhail S. Gorbachev had been removed from power.

**The Communists and Gorbachev were at the end of their rope, and this event ended poorly for both...But a new Russian power-broker was emerging, and becoming the star of this event. This Russian was Boris Yeltsin (President of the Russian Federation), who took on the coup plotters by calling for a general strike.**
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1996 - Ralph Nader accepted the presidential nomination of the Green Party, denouncing tax breaks for corporations and calling for a "political alternative" to the two mainstream parties.

**Third Party candidates, and their parties, are a joke. Those on the Right only help the Left by stealing votes from Republicans, and those on the Left only help the Right by stealing votes from Democrats...Anyone who tells you otherwise either doesn't know better or is out and out lying to you.**

August 18 (A Double)

1227 - Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan died.

**Genghis Khan is one of the greatest rulers in world history, even though he was one of the worst tyrants in history as well.

Uniting the various Mongol tribes was impressive, but Genghis also left his mark over most of the Asian world and much of Eastern Europe.

At the time of his death, the Mongol Empire was still growing, and it's important to note his successors built on his creation, which eventually became the largest land-based empire in the history of the world...From Poland to Iran in the west, and Russia's Arctic shores to Vietnam in the east.**
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1587 - Virginia Dare became the first child of English parents to be born on American soil, on what is now Roanoke Island, North Carolina.

**Just an FYI**
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1914 - President Wilson issued his 'Proclamation of Neutrality,' aimed at keeping the United States out of World War I.

**There are many who think we should have stayed out of 'Europe’s War,' but it was a mistake for Wilson to do so.

Had the U.S. been in it from the start the Germans would have been thoroughly routed, and the post-WWI world would have been shaped by a legitimate defeat of Germany. Instead, the war ended with the Germans losing, but not defeated, which resulted in a pissed off but still militarily capable German nation...The end result of which was Hitler and WWII.**
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1920 - Tennessee ratified the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, the final state needed to obtain the three-quarters of the states necessary to amend the Constitution.

**The Founding Fathers made many mistakes, most of which were impossible to make right during 'their time'...Women's rights and ending slavery were two problems of note, but the time wasn't right to correct these problems.

The Constitution would have never been ratified if either of these two issues had been part of it...And the young nation would have been in a perilous position.

This is why they put the amendment process in the Constitution...It was a brilliant and foresighted way of admitting the document's flaws, and allowed for the hope that progress could be made over time.

The concepts of the 19th Amendment should have been part of the 14th, which granted voting rights to all male citizens...Try to imagine the anger women had that voting rights were granted to black men, but not them. This was a real problem. Of course it was racist, but women were definitely shafted in the deal.

The 19th Amendment righted this wrong: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."**
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1924 - France began removing troops from the Ruhr.

**The French and Belgians occupied the Ruhr region as a means of punishing Germany for its inability to pay WWI reparations...The Germans rightly saw this as a humiliating act, which was just another in the many events leading to the creation of the Nazi State.**
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1961 - Construction of the Berlin Wall was completed.

**East and West Germany were divided, and Berlin was the focal-point...30 long years followed, and the damage done during this time still hasn’t been healed.**
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1991 - Soviet hard-liners launched a coup aimed at toppling President Mikhail Gorbachev, who was vacationing in the Crimea.

**The Soviet Union was collapsing, but the Commies made one last attempt to maintain control...I remember watching these events unfold, wondering if the 'hard-liners' had a chance at overturning change and continuing the existence of the Soviet Hell State.**

August 17

1590 - John White, leader of 117 colonists sent in 1587 to Roanoke Island (North Carolina) to establish a colony, returned from a trip to England to find the settlement deserted. No trace of the settlers was ever found.

**It's reasonable to assume they were devoured by the Indians, who were smart enough at this time to annihilate the invaders before they could do likewise to them.

Unfortunately for the Indians, and fortunately for us, they weren’t as staunch with every European landing in the New World, and were overrun by a stronger people...Such is the history of the world.**
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1812 - The Battle of Smolensk: Napoleon's army defeated the Russians during their retreat to Moscow.

**Smolensk was a victory for Napoleon, but it was also a reality check...The reality was the Emperor was seeing the beginning of the destruction of his supply lines, which ultimately lead to a complete debacle and elimination of his Grand Armee.**
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1896 - A prospecting party discovered gold in Alaska, a finding which started the Klondike gold rush.

**The Russians have to be kicking themselves for selling Alaska to the U.S....So much for the 'folly' of Seward’s Folly, which has paid for itself over and over not only in gold but also in oil.

Also, the Canadians can’t be too pleased the Brits didn’t make this purchase instead of the Americans.**
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1917 - Italy declared war on Germany and Turkey.

**Gotta love the flip-flopping Italians...In both world wars.**
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1945 - Korea was divided on the 38th parallel with the U.S. occupying the southern area.

**This is a terrible day for Koreans, and a turning-point in the history of the world because it set the stage for the Cold War becoming very 'hot' within seven years...It is also exactly what would have happened in Japan had the war continued much past the Atom Bombs.**
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1962 - East German border guards shot and mortally wounded Peter Fechter, who was attempting to cross the Berlin Wall into the western sector.

**Peter wasn't the first or last shot at this wall, but this event does give a good opportunity to ask a question: How many West Germans tried to cross to the East?

The answer to this question is the ultimate tell-tale sign of the failure of Communism.**
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1982 - U.S. and the China signed the 'U.S.-PRC Joint Communique': The U.S. agreed it "recognized the Government of the People's Republic of China as the sole legal government of China, and acknowledged the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China."

**It’s unfortunate, but the truth of the situation is in this part of the text: 'Taiwan is part of China'...Look at a map and tell me how this island can possibly be anything but part of China.**
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1987 - Rudolf Hess, last surviving member of Adolf Hitler's inner circle, died at a Berlin hospital near Spandau Prison at age 93, having apparently committed suicide by strangling himself with an electrical cord.

**Hess lived 42-years too long...It’s disgusting Hitler’s Henchmen weren’t all executed after the war, and were allowed to live any longer than their leader.**

August 16

1513 - The Battle of the Spurs: Henry VIII of England and Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian defeated the French at Guinegatte, France.

**Just another in the seemingly never-ending list of European battles, but I’ve chosen to make note of it for one reason: The battle is called the 'Battle of the Spurs' because of the way the French fled the battlefield...Even back then they were pathetic.**
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1777 - The Battle of Bennington.

**Every battle in the American Revolutionary War was important, but defeating British forces early in the war was a necessity in order to maintain American resolve to the cause.

This battle was extremely important for this reason, and was also a turning point in the French decision to support the Colonists.

Quote from the battle: "There are your enemies, the Red Coats and the Tories. They are ours or this night Molly Stark sleeps a widow." – American General John Stark.**
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1780 - The Battle of Camden: American troops were badly defeated by the British in South Carolina.

**The British 'Southern Strategy' was proving itself to be quite effective, and in this battle the Americans were crushed by Cornwallis.

There were more losses to come, but each British victory carried a cost in troops and supplies...Losses they couldn’t sustain.**
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1861 - President Lincoln issued a proclamation declaring the Southern states to be in a "state of insurrection against the United States."

**This declaration was a little tardy. Lincoln should have made it after Fort Sumter, in April...Either way, the American Civil War was in full form, and four horrific years followed.**
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1995 - The U.S. government more than doubled its estimate of rapes or attempted rapes in the United States each year, to 310,000, a finding praised by leaders of women's groups.

**That’s a lot of rapes. Who knows the methodology they used, or what they consider rape...Here's hoping the study didn’t use the National Organization of Women definition that: “All sex is rape.”**
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2003 - Former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin died.

**Good riddance to dead tyrants!!!

During his seven year reign of terror, Idi Amin Dada Oumee managed to earn a place among the mega-murderers of the 20th Century.

He was nowhere near the Kings of Democide (Stalin, Hitler, Mao), but should be listed shortly below them and such notables as Pol Pot and Nicolae Ceausescu.**

August 15 (A Double)

636 - The Battle at Yarmuk: Islamic forces beat a Byzantine army and gained control of Syria.

**Islam was on the march, and the Byzantines were beginning to decline...A deadly reality for the Western world.**
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778 - Charlemagne's rear guard, returning from Spain, was attacked by Muslim Basques.

**This headline is a confusing if you don't understand Spain was a Muslim country at this time...If you come here daily you should already know this, though, and Charlemagne and the Franks were the only force which kept Islam from sweeping over Western Europe.

Of note in this battle is the death of Roland, Charlemagne’s 'right hand,' whose death was a terrible blow to the great king...It was also an event which put Charlemagne on the offensive, keeping Islam isolated in Spain.

I highly recommend you read The Song of Roland, one of the greatest books of the Middle Ages, and a great story for all time.**
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1096 - The First Crusade set out for Jerusalem.

**A Battle of Civilizations was about to begin...A battle which neither side won, and neither side lost.

The West won many battles, but couldn’t invest and control the Middle East...On the flip side, Islam was kept at bay by the Crusaders, and was never able to successfully invade Central Europe.**
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1620 - The Mayflower set sail from Southampton with 102 Pilgrims.

**These Puritans could have met the same fate as the settlers at Roanoke (probably should have), but they were destined to survive...And a great nation emerged from their founding.**
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1914 - The Panama Canal opened.

**The Canal is an awesome engineering achievement, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and should be put right up with any of the ‘Wonders of the World’...Ancient or Modern.**
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1945 - V.J. Day: The day Japan agreed to surrender unconditionally, ending WWII. In a recorded radio message, Emperor Hirohito called upon the Japanese people to "bear the unbearable" and lay down their arms.

**Don't forget the war started in 1937 with Japan and China, not in 1939 with the Germans invading Poland...And please don't feel sorry for the Japanese or Germans, regardless of how revisionist historians play games with the history of the war. Both deserved the ass kicking they received; and then some.

That said, almost 60,000,000 people were killed as a result of this war, and the world was turned upside down...Sadly, there will be a third, and who knows what the damage and outcome will be. Amazingly, I'm willing to bet when the next world war comes all the main participants will be on the same side. The one outlier might be the Ruskies.**

For the best book I've read on WWII get John Keegan's 'The Second World War.'**
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1947 - The Indian Independence Bill created the two independent states of India and Pakistan, after some 200-years of British rule.

**Two nations with awesome and terrible potential...Both have proven nuclear capability and both border some of the world’s hot spots (China, Afghanistan, Iran, etc).

Oh, and they have ancient hatred for each other, for various ethnic and religious reasons...Both will be major players on the world stage in the 21nd Century.**
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1961 - East Germany began building the Berlin Wall.

**The Berlin Wall was a terrible monument to the reality of the Cold War...I wasn't alive when it went up, but remember the day 'The Wall' came down, and still get tears in my eyes at the event of it falling.**
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2001 - Astronomers announced the discovery of the first solar system outside our own.

**We are not alone...We have no understanding of the enormity and power of the universe, and must admit we (Earth) are but one of what is possibly millions of planets with life on them (or not). The more we search, the more we will find.**
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2005 - Israel began to pull out from the Gaza Strip.

**This is working out great for the Israelis...Not! As predicted by anyone willing to admit the truth about the Palestinians.**

August 14

410 - Visigoth King Alaric sacked Rome.

**Rome was on it's last leg, and accelerated the problems with the Goths (and all the other Barbarians) by allowing them in their ranks.

This 'sacking' can be directly related to this matter, because Alaric was trained by Roman General Stilicho...a Goth.

Ironically, it was Stilicho who was sent out to put down the Gothic force...After thinking it through, however, the Romans decided to recall Stilicho, and had him executed. Thereby killing their best leader, and the man who knew Alaric best.

Such was the Empire in the 400's...A shell of its former self, and barely clinging to its very existence.**
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1281 - The 'Divine Wind' sunk an invading Mongol fleet off of Japan.

**The 'Divine Wind' was a typhoon, which saved Japan from the Mongol onslaught...And there was very little doubt if the Mongols reached land, they would have conquered Japan.

The invasion force consisted of 281 ships and 150,000 men, and after 50+ days of fighting they were getting the upper hand on the Japanese before the typhoon hit.

It is interesting to know, the Japanese do not call the WWII suicide-bombers by the name of Kamikaze's = 'Divine Wind'...The relationship is a loose English translation.**
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1848 - The Oregon Territory was established.

**The northern border of the U.S. was finally delineated, and a major source of contention between the U.S. and Britain was put to rest.**
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1900 - International forces entered Beijing to put down the Boxer Rebellion, which was aimed at purging China of foreigners.

**I can't say I blame China for wanting to overthrow these foreigners, but China had no chance of success....Just about every world power was in the fight, against China.

Unfortunately, the only one who ultimately profited from this battle was Japan, who used this event as one more step towards its domination of the Far East.**
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1935 - The U.S. Congress passed the Social Security Act and President Franklin Roosevelt immediately signed it into law.

**Social Security was created as a means to provide 'Aid to Dependent Children' (now Aid to Families with Dependent Children [AFDC]), unemployment insurance, and pension plans for the elderly."

A nice idea, and one which has become the National Noose around to neck of every living American.**
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1945 - Japanese Imperial Guards attempted a coup, which was put down.

**Even after 2+ years of continuous ass kickings, including two atomic bombs, many Japanese leaders didn't want to surrender...Thankfully these nuts were crushed.**

1945 – President Truman announced Japan accepted terms for unconditional surrender, setting the stage for the end of WWII.

**August 15th is considered VJ Day, but it was still the 14th in North America at the time of the Japanese surrender...It was August 15th in Japan. **
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1973 - The U.S. bombing of Cambodia came to a halt, marking the official end to 12-years of American combat in Southeast Asia.

**I can't do this one...Hopefully we learned from our mistakes and never again fight a war without the objective of winning.

Sadly, the same Liberal scum who forced us to lose in Vietnam are in the process of 'stealing defeat from the jaws of victory' in Iraq.**
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1997 - Convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was sentenced to death for his part in the 1995 explosion which killed 168 people.

**On June 11, 2001, this SOB was executed. Good riddance to murderous scum.**
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2000 - On the opening night of the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, President Bill Clinton offered an embarrassing triumphant review of his years in office, and exhorted delegates to propel Al Gore on the road to succeed him.

**Gotta love Bubba turning Al's party into a Bill Clinton love fest...Imagine what he'd have done if Hillary was nominated in 2008.**
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2003 - The largest blackout in North American history hit the northeast.

**Picture of the Cause of the Blackout........Warning: Rated R.**

August 13 (A Triple...But I'm Making Note of a Special Fourth)

1521 - Hernando Cortes, Spanish conqueror, captured and destroyed Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) after a three month siege.

**Firepower, cavalry, disease and superstition were enough for Cortez and his meager band of Spaniards to overwhelm the greatest nation in the New World...It's a story beyond belief, and one which changed the world.

Read more about Cortez. **
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1898 - The Spanish-American War ended.

**This war was America's coming out party, and also the end of Spain's once great role on the international stage...It's ironic this date is also the date which saw Spain's greatest conquest (Aztecs).**
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1932 - Adolf Hitler rejected the post of Vice-Chancellor of Germany, saying he was prepared to hold out "for all or nothing."

**Unfortunately the Austrian Madman soon got it 'all'...And the world got Hell.**
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1961 - Berlin was divided when East Germany closed the Brandenburg Gate, sealing off the border between the city's eastern and western sectors in order to halt the flight of refugees. Two days later work began on the Berlin Wall.

**The Cold War got much 'hotter' on this day...And millions of East Germans saw their slight chance at freedom disappear.**
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1995 - Baseball great Mickey Mantle died of cancer.

**I am too young to have seen him play, but as a child I read extensively about 'The Mick,' watched re-runs of 'Home Run Derby,' and he was my first hero...I admit to crying when I saw the news of his liver cancer, and even more on this day of his death.

Mickey was an awesome baseball player who was the strongest and the fastest, a Hall of Famer, a Triple Crown winner, a 3-time MVP, a 16-time All Star, a champion. He was almost mythological in my young mind, and the ballplayer I always pretended to be when hitting balls against the wall or catching flys in the outfield..."That boy hits baseballs over buildings. He runs as fast as Ty Cobb." - Casey Stengel

I'm glad I didn't know of his flaws when I was a child, and wish we could return to a better time when our heroes could be just that...HEROES!

Unfortunately, we live in a time where heroes are created then destroyed by the media, and I feel sorry for the children of our current day. There is no such thing as childhood innocence, and they are made to grow up much too fast in a world with the cruelest of realities...I admit I long for a better time, a time when a boy could be a boy.

Goodbye Mickey, you will always be in my memories...Memories of a time when all I had to think about was the next ball I'd try to hit over the fence.**

August 12 (A Double)

1099 - The Crusaders won the Battle of Ascalon.

**Ascalon was the last major battle of the First Crusade; a victory for the Crusaders...Sadly, they soon realized they conquered a land which could never be held. A lesson which went unlearned for the entirety of the Crusades.**
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1552 - Emperor Charles V granted religious freedom with the Treaty of Passau.

**'Granted'? Hardly...Charles had no choice, because he couldn’t control the Protestant lands he gave such 'freedom' to.**
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1553 - Pope Julius III ordered all copies of the Talmud to be confiscated and burned.

**There’s no doubt the Roman Catholic Church had a period where it was much more like the Taliban than the 'Kingdom of Heaven'...This was one of those cases.**
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1865 - Joseph Lister became the first doctor to use disinfectant during surgery.

**Coming from a medical background and knowing what I know about infections, I’d say this was a huge event...The rate of surgical success compared to that prior to disinfection proves it.**
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1867 - President Andrew Johnson sparked a move to impeach him when he defied Congress by suspending Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.

**I hope you know Johnson was the first president to be impeached...It wasn’t Clinton (#2), and it wasn’t Nixon (who wasn’t impeached).

If you didn’t know this, you need to come to this blog much more regularly.**
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1934 - Babe Ruth played his final game.

**The Bambino, the Sultan of Swat. The greatest player in the history of the game.

I don’t do many sports events here, but there has never been a bigger American sports figure, and there will likely never be another like him in the future...The Babe was a baseball god, the likes of which has never been seen.

Most know of his hitting prowess, but it should also be known he was one of the best pitchers of his time, and had he not switched to the outfield would have likely gone into the Hall of Fame as a pitcher.
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1941 - French Marshal Henri Petain gave full support to Nazi Germany.

**Would anyone expect anything else? Petain rolled over like a cheap whore for the invading Germans. Why would he be expected to fight after the fact.**
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1953 - The Soviet Union conducted a secret test of its first hydrogen bomb.

**They had the A-Bomb, and it was only a matter of time before they got the 'H'...Thankfully the Soviets never put that bad-boy to belligerent use, but the Ruskies still have them and who knows what will happen in the future?**
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1972 - The last American combat ground troops left Vietnam.

**We won every battle, but lost the war...A pathetic statement about our civilian leaders who sent the military out to fail.

It was the right war, in the right place, at the right time, but those in the ultimate position of running the war ran it right into the ground...Unfortunately they took the country with them.**
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1990 - Air Force Staff Sergeant John Campisi died after being hit by a military truck in Saudi Arabia, becoming the first U.S. casualty of the Persian Gulf crisis.

**All too often our brave troops die in events other than combat related...Such is the history of warfare and always will be.

No matter how they fall, however, every American soldier who serves the country honorably is deserving of infinite honor and remembrance by the American people**
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1998 - Swiss banks agreed to pay $1.25 billion to settle lawsuits brought by Holocaust survivors and their heirs. The banks kept millions of dollars deposited by Holocaust victims before and during World War II.

**This really is pathetic, but lets play games with math just to show how pathetic it is (Assume 6,000,000 dead Jews):

- 1,250,000,000/6,000,000 = $208.33 per dead Jew.

Most of us spend more than $210 on groceries every other week. No wonder Hitler thought they were worthless.**

August 11

1492 - Alexander VI was elected Pope.

**This is one of the most important popes in history...But notice I didn’t say 'good'.

Alexander closely allied the Church to the Spanish throne, began the mass censorship of books, excommunicated many pre-Reformation antagonists, and set the parameters for the Treaty of Tordesilla, which demarcated the areas of exploration in the New World between Spain and Portugal.**
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1941 - President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill signed the Atlantic Charter, setting forth eight world goals and later established the mission for the United Nations.

**The 'eight world goals' for post-WWII:

1. No territorial gains sought by the United States or the United Kingdom.
2. Territorial adjustments must conform to the people involved.
3. The right to self determination of peoples.
4. Trade barriers lowered.
5. There must be disarmament.
6. There must be freedom from want and fear.
7. There must be freedom of the seas.
8. There must be an association of nations.

#’s 1, 4, 7, and 8 all came to fruition...But #’s 2, 3, and 6 were obliterated by the reality of the Soviet Union, who weren’t invited to this ‘goal setting’ party.

#5 was a complete joke, and after the war the world witnessed the largest increase in armament production in the history of the world.**
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1942 - Vichy government official Pierre Laval publicly declared "the hour of liberation for France is the hour when Germany wins the war."

**Vive la France! Bunch of pathetic surrender monkeys.**
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1954 - A formal peace took hold in Indochina, ending more than seven years of fighting between the French and Communist Viet Minh.

**'A formal peace'? In other words, the French got their asses handed to them and decided to quit Indochina...Always beware of how words are phrased. The headline was ‘true,’ but it didn’t tell ‘the truth.’**
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1964 - The U.S. Congress approved the 'War on Poverty' bill (Economic Opportunity Act). As of 1993, the U.S. spent $5.4 trillion on anti-poverty programs since 1960. Yet in 1993, the poverty rate was 15.1 percent - higher than in the year the 'war' began.

**Another great case of ‘throwing good money after bad'.

The government has placed those in poverty in a perpetual state of helplessness, and made them dependant on the government...This is bad for the human spirit, and bad for America as a whole, but it is good for the politicians those on welfare depend on.

In other words: The Democrats have kept the poor in a system of 'Political Indentured Servitude,' and it has been great for the Democrats, but horrible for those they are preying on.**
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1965 - The Watts Riots erupted in Los Angeles when a white police officer arrests a black man for drunk driving. After six days of rioting, four people were dead, over 1,000 hurt, nearly 4,000 arrested, and property damage was estimated at about $40,000,000.

**This worked out well for the Watts community...I’ll never understand why rioters kill and destroy their own.**
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1975 - The United States vetoed the proposed admission of North and South Vietnam to the United Nations, following the Security Council's refusal to consider South Korea's application.

**We didn't have to worry about this problem for long...North Vietnam soon swallowed up the South, and there was only Vietnam.**
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1984 - President Reagan sparked controversy when he joked during a voice test for a paid political radio address saying he had "signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."

**Ooops! Reagan probably would have been better off not saying this...But it is one of the million reasons I love him.**
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1995 - President Bill Clinton banned all U.S. nuclear tests, calling his decision ''the right step as we continue pulling back from the nuclear precipice.''

**What a great idea. I’m sure our enemies will follow suit. Riiiiiiiiiiight???**
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2000 - President Bill Clinton signed Executive Order 13166, commonly known as the 'Limited English Proficiency' (LEP) Act. EO 13166 requires federal agencies and any other entities which receive federal funds via grants, contracts or sub-contracts to make their activities accessible to non-English speaking persons.

**Clinton was the king of pushing 'bad laws' through the Executive Order, instead of the legitimate way of leaving it to the representatives of the people...Ah, who needs Congress when we have a degenerate Chief Executive to make laws instead?

Plus, I’m sure all of you don’t mind paying for the thousands of forms being printed at taxpayer expense in the modern day Tower of Babel we seem intent on building.**

August 10

70 - The Jewish Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans.

**The ancient Jewish state and nation ended with this event, which marks the beginning of the 1900-year Diaspora.**
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1776 - A committee of Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson suggested the United States adopt "E pluribus unum" as the motto for its Great Seal.

**A brilliant motto – “Out of Many, One” – and a perfect concept to found the new country on...Sadly, Liberals have debased this motto, and changed its definition to 'out of many, MANY.'**
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1831 - The Nat Turner slave rebellion occurred.

**This was the largest slave uprising in pre-Civil War America, and was brutally put down, resulting in the killing and beating of hundreds of slaves and clamping down on security measures against future revolts.**
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1920 - The Treaty of San Sevres was signed, formally ending WWI between the Allies and Turks.

**The terms of this treaty have been disputed, violated, and overlooked by most of the principles involved, because the Ottoman Empire didn’t last long enough to put it into effect...The 'Young Turks,' led by Kemal Ataturk, had other ideas after taking over the Turkish government and simply refused to accept the treaty.

The results of this treaty, and its uselessness, have been some of the many reasons why the Treaty of San Sevres has been called 'The Peace To End All Peace.'**
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1921 - Franklin Roosevelt was stricken with polio at his summer home on the Canadian island of Campobello.

**It’s amazing most Americans didn’t know FDR had polio, and doubtful he could be elected in modern times with such a disease due to the negative media coverage he’d receive from it.**
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1942 – General Bernard Montgomery assumed command of the British Eighth Army, in North Africa.

**Monty was a good commander, and the first Western Allied leader in any position to hand the Nazis a significant loss of any kind...That said, he was timid in the field and a pain in the ass in the office.

There’s no doubt he was the best British field commander in WWII, but it’s unlikely he could have ever been given charge of even a battalion if he were an American commander.**
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1945 - Japan announced its willingness to surrender to the Allies, provided the status of Emperor Hirohito remained unchanged.

**The terms of surrender stipulated “unconditional surrender,” and the Japanese were unwilling to do away with the emperor. So...**

1945 - The U.S. Third Fleet aircraft raided northern Honshu and Hokkaido.

**The Japanese refused to surrender, so the war went on and the Americans started preparation for the impending invasion of Japan Proper...Had the Japanese not quickly surrendered all of Japan would have been destroyed.**
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1988 - President Reagan signed a bill awarding $20,000 to each survivor of the Japanese-American internment.

**There's no denying Japanese internment wasn’t America’s kindest event, but it was probably a proper decision.

Unfortunately, we’ll probably need to have another internment in the future; a Muslim internment...To protect them from themselves.**
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1991 - China agreed in principle to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

**”Agreeing and doing are two different things.**
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1993 - Ruth Bader Ginsburg was sworn in as the second female justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.

**Can you say 'FAR LEFT?'

Just a reminder: Ruthie served as the ACLU's General Counsel from 1973-1980, and on the National Board of Directors from 1974-1980...That's as far Left as they come.**
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1995 - Norma McCorvey, 'Jane Roe' of the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, announced she had joined the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue.

**I’m sure 'Roe' had no idea abortions would go from being 'SAFE, LEGAL & RARE' to leading to the death of one out of every four American pregnancies.

I’m against abortion, but I’m a realist, and not an absolutist.

The sooner both sides come to an agreement that our current argument is out of control the better...Put the 'RARE' back into the equation, and most will be placated, but abortion shouldn’t be a form of after-the-fact birth control.**