April 18

1942 - An air squadron from the USS Hornet, led by Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle, raided Tokyo and other Japanese cities:  WWII.

'Doolittle’s Raid' had absolutely zero tactical value, but strategically it was very important.

Prior to this raid, the Japanese homeland hadn’t been hit by any of its adversaries and the Japanese people felt invincible...Doolittle proved them wrong, and gave a little taste of what was to come in the next few years.

The raid also did wonders for American morale, which needed a victory of any kind to prove the war was winnable.

1775 - American patriot Paul Revere began his famed ride through the Massachusetts countryside, crying out "The British are coming!" to rally the Minutemen.

The pseudo-war shortly came to an end and the full-blown American Revolution was about to begin...It's also important to know Revere didn't 'ride' alone - he was partnered with William Dawes in his famous ride.

1906 - A devastating earthquake struck San Francisco, followed by raging fires, which killed over 3,000 people. It lasted 48-seconds and registered 8.25 on the Richter Scale, qualifying as America's worst earthquake.

The death total was horrific, and another 250,000 were also left homeless - over 75% of the city was destroyed.

Such is the threat of the San Andreas Fault...The planet will eventually consume us all, but those who live in it’s angriest areas live under the constant threat of the Earth showing its power.

1946 - The League of Nations went out of business. All of its assets were handed over to the United Nations.

One POS fell to the ash-heap of history, only to be succeeded by an even more ridiculous entity.

1955 - Physicist Albert Einstein died.

In the entire history of mankind few have been as brilliant as Einstein...Want to think of a scary thought? Try to imagine the world if Hitler allowed Germany's Jewish scientists - including Einstein - to live in Germany unharmed.  Even worse, try to imagine if he cultivated their genius for his designs before wanting to kill them.

1978 - The U.S. Senate voted 68-32 to turn the Panama Canal over to Panamanian control on Dec. 31, 1999.

This might eventually go down as the biggest blunder in the entire Jimmy Carter Presidency - which says a lot...The fact the Canal is falling more and more under Chinese control should also be a scary prospect to every American.

1985 - Amid controversy over his plans to visit a German military cemetery, President Reagan told news editors in Washington the German soldiers had been "victims of the Nazis just as surely as the victims in the concentration camps."

Reagan probably could have kept this one to himself...There is no doubt what he said is partially true, and he wasn't looking to upset anyone, but it is very difficult to get to this point.

1989 - Thousands of Chinese students demanding democracy tried to storm Communist Party headquarters in Beijing.

China has an awesome history of revolutions, but this small effort stood no chance...We’ll soon see how poorly it ended.