November 20

1497 - Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope, en route to discovering a water route to India.

At the time this was a much bigger find than Columbus discovering the New World. In fact India and China were Columbus’ real goal.

The trade route to India established Portugal as one of Europe’s great powers, but its star only lasted as long as the opinion that da Gama’s discovery was more important than Columbus’ - which wasn't for very long.

1521 - Arabs attributed a shortage of water in Jerusalem to Jews making wine.

I thought the Arabs started blaming the Jews for everything after the creation of Israel (400+ years later)...So much for that piece of popular fiction.

1815 - With the Second Peace of Paris, Napoleon was involuntarily exiled to St. Helena.

This time the Brits made sure there would be no escape...How Napoleon escaped the hangman I’ll never know.

1950 - U.S. troops pushed to the Yalu River, within five miles of Manchuria:  Korean War.

China was getting close, Truman was about to lose sphincter control, and General MacArthur was about to get fired.

We had victory in our hands, but backed off. Could we have completely destroyed the North Koreans and Chinese? Probably. Would going forward and pushing the Chinese have started WWIII? Probably not.  But, it would have resulted in an awful lot of American deaths.

I say Truman made the right decision to back off...Including not putting much thought into using our new Atomic Bombs, as well.

1959 - The United Nations issued its 'Declaration of the Rights of the Child.'

They’ve since 'unofficially' declared the 'Lack of Rights of the Unborn Child.'

1962 - President John F. Kennedy agreed to lift the American blockade of Cuba after the USSR agreed to remove bombers from Cuba, ending the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The good ol’ days for the Democrats, a time when they were pro-America and anti-Communist...Oh how things have changed.

1975 - An interim report by the U.S. Senate revealed the Central Intelligence Agency had plotted to kill foreign leaders, including Fidel Castro of Cuba and Patrice Lumumba of the Congo.

And this is a bad thing for what reason? Both are/were minor Stalins, and it would have been a gift to their countries (and humanity) to take them out.

1999 - A day after violent anti-American protests in Greece, President Clinton sought to heal old wounds by acknowledging the United States failed its "obligation to support democracy" when it backed the Greek's harsh military junta during the Cold War.

Hey Bill, of course our first option shouldn't be to support 'military juntas,' but our other option was Communists!!!! Which is why he was upset about our support.