July 9

1868 - The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, defining U.S. citizenship. It took effect on July 28, 1868.

The main point of this amendment is all people born in the United States are citizens, and therefore granted equal protection under the law regardless of race. This includes the protection of their right to vote.

It's unfortunate this wasn't included in the original Constitution, and also that it didn't include women, but the 13th and 14th Amendments were a giant leap forward, and prove the brilliance of the Founders who created a method for righting wrongs in the original document.

Unfortunately, the amendment left a lot of wiggle room when it comes to defining citizenship for those born in the country to those who entered it illegally...The people of the 19th Century never could have understood the levels of legal wrangling 20th and 21st Century liberals would take the amendment to, however.

Not that Liberals have stopped at citizenship when it comes to bastardizing the 14th Amendment.

1497 - Vasco Da Gama set sail to find a sea route to India.

At the time, Da Gama’s discovery was considered a much bigger find than Columbus’...This was a short lived perception, however.

1595 - Johannes Kepler discovered the perfect geometric solid "construction of the universe."

I can't impress on you the importance of Kepler, even though he's a distant afterthought compared to Newton and Einstein.

1934 - Reichsfuhrer-SS Heinrich Himmler took command of the German concentration camp system.

The Chicken Farmer got a major promotion...It's hard to believe anyone could have done such a demonic job, which made him Hitler's perfect henchman.

1960 - Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev threatened nuclear attack if the United States invaded Cuba attempting to oust the communist government of Cuba.

Thankfully he was bluffing, because Kennedy tested Nikki's threat in 1961 with the Bay of Pigs Invasion.

Obviously, Khrushchev didn't launch nukes, but he had to be cracking up at the poor showing of the Americans and their Cuban allies against Castro's pathetic force.