February 16

1808 - The Peninsular War began when Napoleon ordered a large French force into Spain under the pretext of sending reinforcements to the French army occupying Portugal.

Napoleon met his end at Waterloo in 1815, and his invasion of Russia in 1812 was a complete disaster, but the Peninsular War played as big a role as the other two in the emperor’s eventual downfall.

The Spanish fought a guerrilla war against Napoleon, and never won a large battle, but instead forced him to fight a war of attrition...Also, the Peninsular campaign is where the Duke of Wellington perfected the tactics he used to defeat the emperor seven years later.

There are many similarities between the Peninsular War and the WWII Allied attacks on Germany’s ‘soft underbelly’ (North Africa and Italy). Both were used:
- As a training ground for green troops and commanders.
- To soften the tyrant’s (Napoleon and Hitler) allies.
- To string out enemy troops from the far west of Europe to the far east.
- And equally important, both allowed the Brits (and U.S. in WWII) to buy time while their Eastern allies took the brunt of the Imperial and German assaults - largely at the hands of the Ruskies in both cases.

600 - Pope Gregory the Great decreed "God bless You" as the religiously correct response to a sneeze.

I bet you’ve been wondering where this came from.

1804 - The U.S. frigate Philadelphia, captured and held by Barbary pirates at Tripoli during the Tripolitan War, was set fire to and destroyed by a small group of men led by Stephen Decatur.

For those of who didn’t understand the line in the Marine Corp Hymn: “...to the shores of Tripoli” - Now you know.

1862 - About 14,000 Confederate soldiers surrendered at Fort Donelson, Tenn., earning Gen. Ulysses S. Grant the nickname 'Unconditional Surrender Grant.'

Grant wasn’t a military genius by any means, but he was a fighter. Sadly it took Lincoln a few more years to realize Grant was the commander he was looking for...Amazingly, in our time a general like Grant would be run out of the military for being 'too tough,' 'indiscriminate with the use of his troops,' 'a butcher,' 'a drunk,' or for not being 'Politically Correct.'

Thank God for men like Grant; Pershing, Patton, etc.!!! Our nation is at risk because our military has become 'too nice' - and too feminine - figuratively and literally...Someday our armed services will have to revert to their natural roots, which is to 'break stuff and kill people' in the process of protecting our nation.

Unfortunately, it's likely many troops (and probably civilians) will pay the price for our current stupidity on the way to re-learning this ancient knowledge.

1923 - Egyptologist Howard Carter discovered Tutankhamen.

An incredible find...But it was nothing compared to what the ancient grave diggers found with most of the other pharaohs.

Tut was a boy king, and a very unimportant figure compared to most of ancient Egypt's rulers...Yet Carter found a true treasure trove.  Imagine what the powerful pharaohs were buried with.

1951 - Joseph Stalin contended the U.N. was becoming the weapon of aggressive war.

Against who??? This is the ultimate ‘pot calling the kettle black.’

2005 - The Kyoto Protocol took effect.

What a joke.  The Global Warmers got their global law, and it has done nothing...No one who signed the deal has bothered to follow through.

The world just wanted the U.S. to agree to it, which is never has, in order to chop the world's superpower down a few notches - and to dip its hands in her coffers.