February 8

1904 - The Battle of Port Arthur: In a surprise attack at Port Arthur, Korea, the Japanese disabled seven Russian warships, beginning the Russo-Japanese War.

This is one of the most decisive naval battles in history, with the Japanese completely destroying the Russian Far East Navy.

It is also the beginning of the great modern Japanese Navy, and set a precedent for Japanese surprise attacks...The Pearl Harbor attack was based primarily on this one, and was equally successful on a tactical level.

An interesting note on the Russo-Japanese War: It is considered the first war in history where more troops died in battle than due to disease.

421 - Flavius Constantine became co-emperor as Connstantius II.  He was emperor of the Western part of the empire, and Honorius was emperor of the East.

Emperor was a nice title, but being in charge of Rome was a brutal position by this point...Western Europe was besieged by barbarians of every sort, and in the process of being overrun by Germanic tribes.

The East, on the other hand, had another 1,000 years of existence...Not that it was nearly as grand an existence as it had been.

1587 - Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded in England after she was implicated in a plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I.

Legend has it, her head fell down the scaffold, and her pet dog grabbed it by the hair and ran though the streets for hours...True or not, it’s a great story.

1807 -  The Battle of Eylau:  Napoleon defeated the Russians.

The French held the field, but the battle accomplished very little for them:  "What a massacre!  And all for nothing." - French Marshal Michel Ney

The Russians didn't win, but Napoleon didn't crush them, which was a strategic victory for the Allies.

1924 - The first execution by gas in the United States took place at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City - Gee Jon was put to death for murder.

Gas, beheading, lethal injection, by noose or by the bullet, I couldn't care less how murderers are executed. We shouldn’t worry about how, but about the lack of them on a regular basis.

If you murder, you should be executed. It's a pretty simple concept.

1940 - Nazis shot every tenth person in two Polish villages near Warsaw in reprisal for the deaths of two German soldiers:  WWII.

A slow day by Nazi standards.

1943 - FDR ordered a minimal 48-hour work week in war industry:  WWII.

Gasp!!! The horror!! Try to imagine a modern-day American president trying to make such a requirement...Even during a time of war the Liberal scum would throw a fit.