April 11 (A Double)

1689 - The 'Glorious Revolution': William and Mary were crowned joint sovereigns of Great Britain.

The real importance of this 'revolution' was the political arrangement consolidating power in Parliament, which from here began taking power from the monarchy.

It was also nice this 'revolution' was relatively bloodless.

1961 - Soviet cosmonaut Yuri A. Gagarin became the first human in space, and also the first to orbit the earth in a spacecraft.

An amazing accomplishment for man, and an embarrassing one for America...That said, if the U.S. had been willing to simply launch astronauts up in the air (as the Soviets were) we would have beaten the Ruskies at every step in the 'Space Race.'

1713 - The Treaty of Utrecht: Ended the War of Spanish Succession.

Another in a seemingly never ending series of European wars...The French and Spanish kings agreed to renounce their claims on each other’s thrones, but the overall winner was Britain - the norm for all of these wars.

1783 - After receiving a copy of the provisional treaty on March 13, the U.S. Congress proclaimed a formal end to hostilities with Great Britain.

The American Revolution was officially over.

Unfortunately, the Brits didn’t accept the situation, and started planning the reconquest of its former colonies before the ink dried on this document...It took the War of 1812 for the Americans to prove they could defend their new nation, and put an end to any British hopes of reclaiming its former colonies.

1814 - Napoleon Bonaparte abdicated as Emperor of France and was banished to the island of Elba.

This sentence alone shows what a bunch of morons Euros are. There is no way Napoleon should have been sentenced to anything other than death...Even worse, he was put in a place he was able to escape from and returned to wreak havoc on those who gave him such a ‘polite’ sentence.

1933 - Hermann Goering became Premier of Prussia.

The ‘Fat Field-Marshal’ is by far my favorite Nazi (you know what I mean), and had a bizarre need to collect titles...For most, being Premier of Prussia would be enough, but Goering eventually collected over 50 titles.

1945 - American soldiers liberated the notorious Nazi Buchenwald Concentration Camp:  WWII.

It’s a good thing Ike insisted on getting these camps on film and documented in any way possible, because it is almost unbelievable any people could be so bestial towards another.

Amazingly, there are plenty of people who don’t believe it happened (regardless of the evidence), or simply choose to minimize the significance of what happened...Which makes them every bit as pathetic as those who ordered, allowed, and committed the crimes of the Holocaust.

1951 - President Truman relieved General Douglas MacArthur of his command in the Far East:  Korean War.

What a terrible moment for a great man...Not a perfect man, nor a perfect general.  But even his detractors have to admit he was the 'right man at the right time' in WWII and rebuilding Japan.

But he overstepped his authority in Korea.

'The General' was right in his assessment of the situation and what could have been done, but those who believe in the American System must always bow to the reality of civilian control of the military...It was set up this way for a reason, and must not only be accepted, it must be honored.

1979 - Ugandan dictator Idi Amin was overthrown.

Amin was a brutal dictator who tortured and killed 300,000-500,000 people...Incredibly, he was small potatoes compared to some of the 20th Century's other democidal dictators.

1996 - Forty-three African nations signed the African Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Treaty.

Which likely means all 43 of them would give anything to produce one, and are surely trying to do so.

2007 - Iran announced it successfully enriched uranium.

Great...At this point, it's a small event.  Over time it may jump up the ladder.