June 20

451 - The Battle of the Catalaunian Field:  Attila the Hun was defeated by a Roman-Visigoth Army, led by Flavius Aetius Theodoric.

Also knows as the Battle of Chalons, or the Battle of the Catalun.

Until this battle, Attila had been virtually unchallenged, and even this defeat wasn't conclusive...But it was the first defeat of any kind for Attila, and planted a seed of doubt in his mind (as well as that of his troops) of his own invincibility. In fact, Attila contemplated suicide before coming to his senses.

This battle was also the last successful major military operation of the Western Roman Empire.

1499 - Queen Isabella, of Spain, condemned the enslavement of American Indians.

This sounds nice, but in reality had little, if any, effect in the New World...It took revolutions in South and Central America before the Spanish were forced to accept the native population as anything other than a people to be used for production and profit.

1782 - The U.S. Congress approved the Great Seal of the United States, and the Eagle as it's symbol. William Barton designed the seal, which is still used today, consisting of an eagle, an olive branch and 13 arrows - one for each of the original 13 colonies.

History of the Seal:

Click each link to learn the significance of each item.

Front: On the breast of the American bald eagle is a shield with thirteen vertical white and red stripes beneath a blue chief. In the eagle's right talon is an olive branch, and in his left a bundle of thirteen arrows. In his beak is a scroll inscribed with the motto E Pluribus Unum.

Over the head of the eagle, a golden glory is breaking through a cloud and surrounding a constellation of thirteen stars on an azure field.

Back: In the zenith of an unfinished pyramid is an eye in a triangle surrounded with a golden glory. Over the eye are the words Annuit Coeptis. On the base of the pyramid are the numerical letters MDCCLXXVI, and underneath, the motto Novus Ordo Seclorum.

1791 - King Louis XVI was caught trying to escape the French Revolution.

He didn't make it...Unless making it is hitting the bottom of the guillotine - January 1793.

1936 - The Anti-Price Discrimination Act made it illegal for big companies to set prices so low that smaller companies are driven out of business.

So much for a 'Free Market'...And the question must be asked: Exactly who did this help??

It didn't help the consumer, because it kept prices up (artificially), and it hurt workers because it kept businesses which should be naturally swallowed up from going under, even if they weren't legitimately competitive.

1960 - Flemming v. Nestor: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled workers have no legal right to Social Security, because Congress can cut or eliminate Social Security benefits at any time regardless of a worker's contributions.

Unfortunately this will eventually be forced on the people...Not by legislation, but by reality when the system self-destructs.

1977 - Oil began to flow through the $7.7 billion, 789-mile Alaska pipeline.

Oil was discovered in 1968, and within nine years The Pipeline was flowing...One step towards becoming less dependant on the OPEC cabal - if only our Democrat overlords would allow it.