November 27

1520 - Ferdinand Magellan entered the Pacific Ocean - the first European to do so.

The captain was on his way to circumnavigate the globe. Unfortunately, he and most of his crew lost their lives in the Philippines...It was up to his subordinates to finish the trip, but as the captain of the voyage Magellan has been historically credited with the achievement.

511 - Clovis, King of the Franks, died and his kingdom was divided between his four sons.

Clovis, the first Christian king in post-Roman Gaul, did much to unite the various Frankish bands (Salians, Ripurians, etc.), and kept the Visigoths from conquering Gaul...Unfortunately for the Franks, the practice of their kings dividing their holdings among their sons did much to undo their greatness because it fractured their kingdoms into ever smaller lands.

1817 - U.S. soldiers attacked a Florida Indian village, beginning the Seminole War.

The Seminoles fought harder and longer than any other Indian group, and there is a good reason: The Seminoles had been accepting escaped black slaves into their tribe, an act of theft in the minds of Southern slave owners...They knew they couldn’t surrender, because their leaders would be tried for stealing the slaves.  Tried and killed.

1942 - The French Navy at Toulon scuttled its ships and submarines to keep them out of the hands of the Nazis:  WWII.

This naval group was very honorable, but there were many others who simply abandoned their posts...Luckily the Brits destroyed most of the French navy before the Germans could get at it. A fact the French still cry about.

1945 - General George C. Marshall was named special U.S. envoy to China to try to end hostilities between the Nationalists and the Communists.

This was one of Marshall’s few failures...Not that he had any chance of succeeding.

1971 - Soviet Mars 2 became the first spacecraft to crash land on Mars.

The Soviet space program was very good at crash landing, and it is no wonder they beat the U.S. to so many space goals - because the U.S. wasn’t willing to kill off its astronauts or ruin its rockets just to beat the Ruskies.

1995 - President Bill Clinton presented his case for sending 20,000 U.S. troops on a peacekeeping mission to Bosnia, saying: "in the choice between peace and war, America must choose peace."

Clinton was absolutely right, because many times ‘peace’ is bought with ‘war,’ but he is a lying SOB...If he really believed in this statement then why does he complain about Bush invading Iraq?

And, what 'peace' was he choosing by humiliating the Russians in their sphere of influence, during a time of weakness?  A question we are having to answer in our current time.  A question we should think very long and hard about in the future - specifically in North Korea when it comes to China.

1996 - A federal judge blocked enforcement of a California initiative to dismantle affirmative action, saying civil rights groups had a "strong probability" of proving it unconstitutional.

Exactly where in the Constitution does it state minorities and women have more rights than whites and men? I’ve read the document over and over and have yet to find this portion...I’ve also never seen the portion stating anything about ‘separation of church and state.’

I must be missing it. Or maybe both concepts can only be found in the Hegelian version of the Constitution.

2003 - President George W. Bush secretly flew to Iraq to spend Thanksgiving with the troops.

Just one of the many reason why the troops loved him...And another reason the Democrats hate him.

That said, he probably should have skipped this one.