October 29 (A Double)

539 B.C. - Persian King Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon.

The Persians had long been kicking at the gates of Mesopotamia, but it wasn't until Cyrus came along that they had the leadership it took to overwhelm the Assyrians (Babylonians)...Cyrus proved to be much more than an average leader, and eventually conquered most of the area of the modern-day Middle East. Which is why he was able to found the world's first true empire, was known as the King of Kings, and later as 'the Great.'

1929 - Black Tuesday.

The day the Great Depression began, with the massive trading of 13,000,000 shares on the N.Y. Stock Exchange.

There were many reasons for the Depression, which was a global phenomenon not an American one...Most important was the destabilization of the world economy after WWI, and the excessive reparations put on German with the Treaty of Versailles.

Unfortunately, this state of economic destabilization was one of the many factors leading to WWII.

1940 - U.S. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson drew the first number (158) in America's first peacetime military draft:  WWII.

This was a year before the Japanese invaded Pearl Harbor...Thankfully the U.S. military was ramping up.

FDR should have begun this process in 1939, and entered the war in 1940, but didn't have the courage or conviction to do what was right, because it would have been unpopular...In other words, FDR was a politician not a statesman.  That said, he did prove to be a great war president once he was dragged into it.

1942 - Nazis murdered 16,000 Jews in Pinsk, Soviet Union:  WWII.

Another big day for the 'Master Race.'

1966 - The National Organization for Women (NOW) was founded.

This name is so deceiving...It should be NOMLMHW: National Organization for Marxist Lesbian Man Hating Women. Anything less is a huge lie.

1997 - Iraq barred Americans from the U.N. disarmament effort in Iraq. A move which outraged chief weapons inspector Richard Butler and prompted him to suspend inspections.

It’s a good thing the Clinton Administration was tough on Saddam. Riiiiiiiight...Instead he left the problem for his successor.