January 11

532 - The Nika Revolt: A general revolt against Byzantine emperor Justinian.

This event wasn't a revolution - it was a massive riot. One of the largest in history...It almost destroyed Justinian, which would have likely brought on a much quicker downfall of the Byzantine Empire - which was nothing less than a continuation of the Roman Empire in the East.

Luckily, Justinian's wife, Theodora, helped him 'keep his head' and gave him the inner strength to put down the riot...Not only did Justinian survive the riot, ending up the greatest Byzantine emperor, but he rebuilt Constantinople which helped strengthen the empire enough to last another 1000 years.

1879 - The Zulu War began:  South African colonials vs. Britain.

Shaka was dead, but he trained his people well...Unfortunately for the Zulus, the Brits were also trained, and had modern weapons.

1922 - Insulin was first used to treat diabetes. Leonard Thompson, from Canada, was the first patient.

Diabetes is a horrible disease, and it's hard to imagine what it would be like without the genius of such medicines.

1923 - France and Belgium occupied the Ruhr as a way to collect reparations from Germany.

I hope they collected plenty because the Ruhr was quickly reclaimed by Germany when Hitler took power, and the Germans soon returned to France and Belgium...Payback-for-payback is a bitch.

1929 - In the Soviet Union, the Bolsheviks officially reduced the workday to seven hours.

Hahahahaha!!! Those silly communists had such a way with words.

I bet if you asked any person who lived in the Soviet system how long their workday was they’d say much longer than seven hours a day...Maybe they meant seven before lunch and seven after lunch.

Oops.  I forgot, lunch was a myth, too.

1943 - The Soviet Red Army encircled Stalingrad:  WWII.

Hitler's army was enveloped, and his insistence on capturing Stalingrad was about to end in disaster...German Field Marshall von Paulus surrendered shortly after this, and the Soviet rout was on.

1944 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his 'State of the Union,' proposed a National Service Act and a new set of rights, including: a right to a job, a right of decent income to farmers, a right to a decent home, a right to medical care, etc.

Sounds like FDR was proposing the U.S. become Utopia. Unfortunately, for Liberals, America is a place situated in 'REALITY,' and is based on 'LIBERTY,' not 'EQUALITY.'

We have the freedom (Liberty) to make our lot in life. We are not owed anything except opportunity, and Equality isn’t an attainable goal, or even a goal worth wanting, because the only way to make everyone Equal is to make everyone 'MISERABLE.'

Incredibly, President Obama attempted to revive FDR's silly program...Which led to the electoral disasters of 2010-2016 for Democrats - ultimately giving rise to the presidency of Donald Trump.

1989 - 140 nations agreed to ban chemical weapons.

How many have kept this agreement?  Did the U.S. keep it?

2000 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled state employees cannot go into federal court to sue over age bias.

This sounds like a simple ‘states rights’ issue, but some cried because they’d rather have their 'Uncle' (Sam) control everything...Most notably the federal courts, and their Liberal agenda.

2002 - The first al-Qaeda prisoners arrived at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

I'm so glad President Obama is using his last days in office freeing these poor prisoners...I'm sure we'll be much safer for such actions.