August 12 (A Double)

1934 - Babe Ruth played his final game.

The Babe, the Bambino, the Sultan of Swat. The greatest player in the history of the game...The most dominant American athlete - regardless of which sport.

I don’t do many sports events here, but there has never been a bigger American sports figure, and there will likely never be another like him in the future...The Babe was a baseball god, the likes of which has never been seen.

Most know of his hitting prowess, but it should also be known he was one of the best pitchers of his time, and had he not switched to the outfield would have possibly gone into the Hall of Fame as a pitcher.

1953 - The Soviet Union conducted a secret test of its first hydrogen bomb.

They had the A-Bomb, and it was only a matter of time before they got the 'H'...Thankfully the Soviets never put that bad-boy to belligerent use, but the Ruskies still have them and who knows what will happen in the future?

1099 - The Crusaders won the Battle of Ascalon.

Ascalon was the last major battle of the First Crusade - a victory for the Crusaders...Sadly, they soon realized they conquered a land which could never be held. A lesson which went unlearned for the entirety of the Crusades.

As much as I hate to say it, I'm afraid this is a lesson the Israelis are going to learn over time as well.

1552 - Emperor Charles V granted religious freedom with the Treaty of Passau.

'Granted'? Hardly...Charles had no choice, because he couldn’t control the Protestant lands he gave such 'freedom' to.

1553 - Pope Julius III ordered all copies of the Talmud to be confiscated and burned.

There’s no doubt the Roman Catholic Church had a period where it was much more like the Taliban than the 'Kingdom of Heaven'...This was one of those cases.

1865 - Joseph Lister became the first doctor to use disinfectant during surgery.

Coming from a medical background and knowing what I know about infection, I’d say this was a huge event.

1867 - President Andrew Johnson sparked a move to impeach him when he defied Congress by suspending Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.

I hope you know Johnson was the first president to be impeached...It wasn’t Clinton (#2), and it wasn’t Nixon (who wasn’t impeached).

If you didn’t know this, you need to come to this blog much more regularly.

1941 - French Marshal Henri Petain gave full support to Nazi Germany:  WWII.

Would anyone expect anything else? Petain rolled over like a cheap whore for the invading Germans. Why would he be expected to fight after the fact.

1972 - The last American combat ground troops left Vietnam.

We won every battle, but lost the war...A pathetic statement about our civilian leaders - who sent the military out to fail.

It was the right war, in the right place, at the right time, but those in the ultimate position of running the war ran it right into the ground...Unfortunately they took the country with them.

1990 - Air Force Staff Sergeant John Campisi died after being hit by a military truck in Saudi Arabia, becoming the first U.S. casualty of the Persian Gulf crisis.

All too often our brave troops die in events other than combat related...Such is the history of warfare and always will be.

No matter how they fall, however, every American soldier who serves the country honorably is deserving of infinite honor and remembrance by the American people.

1998 - Swiss banks agreed to pay $1.25 billion to settle lawsuits brought by Holocaust survivors and their heirs. The banks kept millions of dollars deposited by Holocaust victims before and during World War II.

This really is pathetic, but lets play games with math just to show how pathetic it is (Assume 6,000,000 dead Jews):

- 1,250,000,000/6,000,000 = $208.33 per dead Jew.

Most of us spend more than $210 on groceries every other week. No wonder Hitler thought they were worthless.