June 26

1900 - Dr. Walter Reed and his medical team began a successful campaign to wipe out Yellow Fever in the Panama Canal Zone.

The 'bugs' destroyed previous attempts to build a canal, and the first priority of the American operation was to wipe out Yellow Fever before it wiped out the workers - as it had every other group attempting this project...This method of sanitation-first became the global standard for building projects in the undeveloped world.

1284 - The Pied Piper lured 130 children of Hamelin away, and they were never seen again. The reasons behind the mass-abduction is obscured by legend and the tale that he did it in revenge for not being paid for clearing the town of rats was a fiction added later.

An interesting tale, but not a historical event: The Pied Piper.

1917 - The first troops of the American Expeditionary Force arrived in France:  WWI.

It was a little late in the war, and there was little chance of the Axis winning by this point, but the entry of the U.S. signified the end was in sight.

1934 - Germany and Poland signed a non-aggression pact.

You have to wonder if the Poles actually thought this would be upheld, or if they were just buying time? Either way, in five years Hitler used this pact as toilet-paper.

1945 - The United Nations Charter was signed by 50 countries in San Francisco.

The U.N. Charter is little more than a comic book, without pictures...One which isn't funny.

1989 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled murderers as young as 16, or who were mentally retarded, could be sentenced to death.

And then the 2005 Supremes overruled the 1989 Supremes...I can live with not executing the mentally retarded, but 16-year olds who kill should be killed.

1993 - President Bill Clinton announced the U.S. launched missiles against Iraqi targets because of "compelling evidence" Iraq plotted to assassinate former President Bush.

Good on Bubba...He had a few moments where he acted Presidential, and this was one.

1998 - The U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark sexual harassment ruling, putting employers on notice they can be held responsible for supervisors' misconduct even if they knew nothing about it.

This makes no sense at all. How can a company be held responsible for a problem it doesn’t know exists??? This is nothing but a lawyer’s wet-dream.