July 11

1804 - Vice President Aaron Burr mortally wounded former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton in a pistol duel.

Hamilton died the following afternoon...I hope you understand this was the Vice President of the U.S. dueling Hamilton - former Treasury Secretary and one of the most brilliant men of the period.

Politics has always been messy, and the battles of our time are pretty tame compared to those of the past...So, next time you hear a TV talking-head say politics is "worse now than ever," remember this incident and also remember modern-day hyperbole experts are trying to play you for an uneducated fool.

1613 - Michael Romanov was crowned Czar of Russia.

Michael founded the Romanov Dynasty, which ruled Russia for the next 300+ years...A dynasty which pulled Russia out of what was a semi-barbaric state of existence until their time.

1798 - The U.S. Congress re-established the Marine Corps, disbanded in 1784.

I had no idea the Marine Corps was disbanded after the Revolutionary War. The site listed gives the Marine Corps much better due than I can: History of the Marine Corps.

1862 - President Lincoln appointed Henry Halleck as General-in-Chief of the U.S. Army:  U.S. Civil War.

Halleck was the 'grand old man of the Army,' but it's a good thing Lincoln recognized he was useful as a desk-general and little else...Unfortunately, the fools Lincoln appointed as field commanders in the early part of the Civil War were as useless as Halleck as a field commander behind his desk.

1863 - The first U.S. Military draft was held:  U.S. Civil War.

The nation was in need as never before, and the draft was an absolute necessity...Sadly, it will eventually be needed again.

1944 - President Franklin Roosevelt said he would run for a fourth term.

FDR was an excellent wartime president, but he had no business running for a third term - a fourth was absurd...George Washington set the standard and no president had ever pushed his bounds past that set by Washington.

1945 - The U. S. Army used napalm on Japanese forces on the island of Luzon in the Philippines:  WWII. This is the first recorded use of napalm.

Napalm, Nukes, blah, blah, blah. When you commit to war, you must commit to winning...Not doing so has been our downfall since WWII.

1955 - The U.S. Air Force Academy was dedicated at Lowry Air Base in Colorado.

A brilliant school for the world's greatest air fighting force...A force defined by much more than planes.

1955 - The U.S. Congress said all U.S. currency would carry the term "In God We Trust."

OH MY GOD!!!! I bet you cringe every time you pull a dollar out of your wallet knowing such a vile inscription is on that dollar.

Of course you don't, but this is what the Commie-Libs want us to believe.