January 23 (A Triple)

1368 - Emperor Hongwu established the Ming Dynasty in China.

This event ended Mongol rule in China, re-establishing Chinese rule by Chinese. It also set China on a path towards what some historians have called "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history."

1556 - The deadliest earthquake on record killed 830,000 in Shensi, China.

830,000 dead in one earthquake!  That is truly awesome - in a horrible way...How horrible?  It is more deaths than the U.S. lost in WWI, WWII, the Korean War, Vietnam War, and the various Persian Gulf/Wars on Terror combined.

1922 - The first successful test on a human patient with diabetes occurred when insulin was administered to dangerously ill Leonard Thompson.

Thankfully this happened in the 1920’s instead of today, and an unknown amount of human-beings have been able to live normal and decent lives as a result.

If it happened today, the manufacturer would have to jump though hoops to get it to the patients in need:

1. Pass exceedingly difficult FDA requirements. Including the normal process of testing, lobbying and payoffs.

2. Who knows if patients would even be able to get the new drug, because the cost would be astronomical - covering the cost of discovery, production, liability, testing, profit, and the cost to American taxpayers subsidizing it for the rest of the world.

3. A few patients would surely have negative reactions to the medicine, and the legal battles would cause the drug to be pulled from the market, even though its benefits to millions far outweigh the negative affects to a few.

Sadly, this is the reality of new medications in the U.S...Even more sad, it's not much of a stretch to believe there are many life-saving medications currently sitting on shelves waiting for their chance to help people while bureaucrats decide if they can be put on the market and for manufacturers to decide if it is profitable enough to put on the market.

638 - The first day of the Islamic calendar.

Congratulations.

1516 - Ferdinand II of Aragon died and was succeeded as King of Spain by his grandson Charles V.

The Habsburg lines were united (Holy Roman Empire/Austria and Spain/New World), and the rest of Europe let out a collective moan.

It had been over 700-years since one European ruler held such a vast amount of territory (Charlemagne), and the other powers could not allow this...As a result Charles had very few, if any, years of peace during his reign.

1668 - The Triple Alliance was founded:  Britain, the Netherlands and Sweden.

This was a defensive alliance against France, and was absolutely necessary with the 'Sun King' looking outwards towards new lands to dominate.

1793 - The Second Partition of Poland:  Prussia and Russia divided Lithuania and Poland.

I can’t think of any nation as geographically unlucky as Poland, sandwiched between the Russian and German beasts.

1812 - A 7.8 earthquake struck New Madrid, Missouri.

The New Madrid Fault Line is a monster, and the center of the U.S. is captive to it's reawakening...A reawakening which, if history proves correct, will likely make this 7.8 look small.

1948 - The Soviets refused U.N. entry into North Korea to administer elections.

From the very beginning the U.N. was a corrupt ‘Paper Tiger’ with no teeth...This should have been the day the U.S. withdrew from the Circle-Jerk Group.

1989 - The U.S. Supreme Court invalidated a Richmond, Virginia program requiring 30% of the city’s public works funds be set aside for 'minority-owned' construction firms.

What kind of ‘Reverse Racism' plan was this? I don’t know for certain, but I’d be willing to bet 30% of the city’s construction firms aren't owned by minorities, yet they thought they should get 30% of the contracts?

I’d also be willing to bet this had more to do with lining the pockets of a few minority owned companies (fraud), than to being a civil rights program.

1991 - Iraqi forces in Kuwait deliberately created a huge oil spill in the Persian Gulf.

This was a small act compared to what they later did, but Liberals would still prefer Saddam over President Bush...Even the EnviroNuts who 'supposedly' care about such things as oil spills.

2002 - John Walker Lindh, a U.S.-born Taliban fighter, was returned to the United States to face criminal charges that he conspired to kill fellow Americans.

What kind of message is sent that this POS wasn’t executed as a traitor?

2002 - The U.N. sent famine relief to Zimbabwe.

I’m sure ‘The Beast’ (President Mugabe) made sure all of this 'relief' went to the starving Zimbabwean people...Sure.

January 12 (A Double)

1896 - H.L. Smith took the first X-ray photograph - a hand with a bullet in it.

This was a huge development in the history of medicine..And one which extended well past medicine. For better and for worse.

1943 - Soviet forces penetrated the siege of Leningrad, creating a breach in German lines, which had encircled the city for a year and a half. This breach allowed more supplies to come in along Lake Ladoga, the lifeline of the Leningrad resistance:  WWII.

The Battle of Leningrad is one of the greatest battles in world history, and should be read by all...I recommend 'The 900 Days,' by Harrison Salisbury.

The Russians lost approximately one million lives in almost 900-days; around 1,000 per day for 2 1/2 years...As a point of reference, imagine the effect a 9/11/01 or Pearl Harbor every 2-3 days for almost three years would have on America.

The 'City of Lenin,' (or 'Peter' for those who are true historians) much like Stalingrad, could not fall to the Germans, and Hitler was so maniacal he insisted on conquering it, when bludgeoning, isolating and bypassing the city made much more strategic sense.

1893 - Hermann Goering was born.

Happy Birthday, you fat-ass, psychotic, piece of human garbage!!

That said, the field marshal is one of my favorite Nazis to read about.

1918 - The U.S. government agreed to use state prisoners as farm laborers.

Can you imaging if we did this today? The ACLU and the rest of the Liberal Jackals would be howling mad.

Who cares what the ACLU wants, though.  It sounds like a much better plan than bringing in millions of illegal aliens to do the same work...But I’m sure in modern-day, moronic, Liberal America this would be considered “cruel and unusual punishment.”

1948 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled states could not discriminate against law-school applicants because of race.

Of course race shouldn’t preclude anyone from law school (or any school)...Neither should gender, etc.

This should include whites and men, by the way, because 'Reverse Racism' is as repugnant as 'Direct Racism'...Except in Liberalville, of course, where they not only push for Reverse Racism but also push for the "soft bigotry of low expectations." - G.W. Bush.

It's what keeps Democrats in office, and has been a brilliant political scheme for over 60-years.

1950 - The USSR reintroduced the death penalty for treason, espionage and sabotage.

In 1950?  That would be funny if it wasn't so sad.

1961 - A United Nations pact banning genocide went into effect.

Bangladesh (1971), East Timor (1975-99), Cambodia (1975-79), Bosnia (1992-95), Rwanda (1994), Darfur (2004-today).

Looks like banning genocide works really well.

1976 - The U.N. Security Council voted 11-1 to seat the Palestine Liberation Organization for its debate on the Middle East. The United States cast the only dissenting vote.

Yet we continue to prop up this joke of an organization - actually both...So, we get what we ask for.

1990 - Romania became the first Warsaw Pact member to ban the Communist Party.

Considering Romania's sordid history, banning Commies is unlikely to keep them from reverting to poor form.

1991 - A deeply divided U.S. Congress gave President G.H.W. Bush the authority to expel Iraq from Kuwait.

Wait a minute.  I thought everyone supported the first Gulf War - just not the second one...This is the mythology we've all heard from Democrats and their lap-dogs in the media for the past two decades.

For the record:  The Senate voted 52-47, the House voted 250-183.

Can you believe there were actually 48 dirt bag Senators (47 + 1 dissenter) and 183 POS Representatives who voted to allow Saddam to keep Kuwait?

Democrats of course!

This same group of clowns were raging again 12-years later when the time came to get rid of the 'Butcher of Baghdad'...So much for the lie that Democrats supported the First Gulf War because we had a 'global mandate' to free Kuwait.

1995 - Amid unprecedented media hype, the murder trial of Hall of Fame football star O.J. Simpson began in a Los Angeles Superior Court. Simpson was accused of killing his ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ronald Goldman.

It’s hard to believe, but this is still the biggest media story in my 40+ year existence...It got every bit as much play as 9/11, Iraq War, Katrina, Obama, etc., and certainly was overwhelmingly covered for a longer period of time.

Incredibly, 'The Juice' got away with murder...Equally incredible, justice was finally served when he was put in prison for such a stupid act as trying to steal his own stolen football paraphernalia.

1998 - Nineteen European nations signed a treaty in Paris opposing human cloning.

Sure...We’ll see how long the Mengelian-wannabes are held at bay on this one.

1998 - Germany said it agreed to establish a $110 million fund to compensate Jewish victims of the Nazis in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Payments from the fund would be released starting in 1999 over a period of four years, benefiting an estimated 17,000 to 20,000 victims.

So the other 9-10 million were ‘freebies’? I guess this makes everything alright, though, for the 17,000.

Uhhh, do you realize that comes to a paltry $6,471 per person? (110,000,000/17,000).

A piece of crap used car costs over $6,471. I guess Der Fuhrer was right and the life of a Jew really is cheap.

2000 - The U.S. Supreme Court gave police broad authority to stop and question people who run at the sight of an officer.

They should have given the police the 'authority' to see if the 'runners' can outrun a bullet...If you have nothing to run from, then don't run.

2010 - A massive earthquake struck Haiti.

200,000-300,000 Haitians were killed as a result of this event...As a point of reference, the U.S. had around 400,000 deaths in all of WWII.

Nature is truly a 'mother.'

October 8

451 - The Fourth Ecumenical Council opened (it ended Nov. 1).

This was the fourth of seven 'infallible' councils, better known as the Council of Chalcedon.

Many issues were solved at Chalcedon, but none were bigger than that which solved the nature of Christ...The 'Chalcedonian Creed' describes the full humanity and full divinity of Christ, repudiating the doctrine of Monophysitism, which stated Christ had just one nature - the divine.

1871 - The Great Chicago Fire erupted while another deadly blaze broke out in Peshtigo, Wisconsin. Over four square miles of Chicago were destroyed, and the fire burned for three days. Over 250 people died and 90,000 were left homeless when one-third of the city was destroyed.

Such is the history of huge population centers built out of wood.

1917 - Leon Trotsky was named Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet.

It's impossible to minimize the importance of Lev Davidovich Bronstein (better known as Leon Trotsky) in the Russian Revolution, and it should be noted he played a much larger role than anyone other than Lenin...Trotsky actually led the fight before Lenin arrived on the scene.

FYI: Trotsky was a notoriously hard-hitting writer when he joined the Communist fight, and Lenin called him "The Pen" - in Russian: 'PERO'...Trotsky is no hero of mine, but I love the nickname and have long used it as part of my own.

1945 - President Truman announced the secret of the atomic bomb would be shared only with Britain and Canada.

That worked out well.

1956 - Don Larsen pitched the only perfect game in a World Series game, as the New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 2-0.

27 batters, 27 consecutive outs, no runs, no hits, no walks, no errors...The greatest pitching accomplishment on the greatest baseball stage in history.

1970 - Soviet author Alexander Solzhenitsyn was named winner of the Nobel Prize for literature.

It's hard to believe a writer could have such an enormous influence, but Solzhenitsyn's novels brought light to the situation in the Soviet Union.

Many in the West knew the USSR was a mess, but turned a blind eye to the problem...It was Solzhenitsyn who blew the doors off the lie, and showed the world the Soviet Union was not only a mess but also an abomination.

1994 - President Bill Clinton, responding to the massing of Iraqi troops near the Kuwaiti border, warned Saddam Hussein not to misjudge "American will or American power" as he ordered additional U.S. forces to the region.

I bet Hussein was scared. Scared for the lives of those working in Iraqi pharmaceutical plants...If you don't get that you aren't paying attention.

September 27

1940 - The Tripartite Pact: Germany, Italy and Japan signed a 10-year military and economic agreement strengthening the Axis alliance:  WWII.

The agreement is also known as the 'Three-Power Pact,' and was a direct threat to the U.S.to stay out of the war, or risk war on two fronts...The Soviets were already in the war, after invading Poland, but it was also a warning to them as well for the same reason - they feared Japan every bit as much as Germany.

"...stand by and co-operate with one another in...their prime purpose to establish and maintain a new order of things...to promote the mutual prosperity and welfare of the peoples concerned...to assist one another with all political, economic and military means when one of the three contracting powers is attacked."

They tried to sell it as an 'economic pact,' but there was no doubt it was first and foremost a military deal, aimed at global domination.

1009 - The Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem was destroyed by Caliph al-Hakim.

This church is the traditional site of Jesus' crucifixion, and was one of the holiest sites in the Christian world...Needless to say, it is one of the many reasons the Crusaders trekked across the globe to reclaim the Holy Land in the Crusades.

1066 - William, Duke of Normandy, with an army of 5,000 men, set sail from France for England to claim the English throne.

Re-read that, and think about how bold it was for William to invade and conquer a nation with 5,000 men...The Normans were tough, but they should have been slaughtered by the English.  Lucky for William, England was anything but united in the coming fight.

1830 - The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek: Choctaw Indians ceded their lands east of the Mississippi River to the U.S.

This treaty was the beginning of the removal and relocation of the American Indians.

Rule #1 of invasions: Don't let the enemy off the beach!!

The failure to recognize this fact doomed the American Indians - as has happened to most ancient civilizations throughout history.

1964 - The Warren Commission issued a report concluding Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in assassinating President Kennedy.

What a gross waste of taxpayer money...Almost as pathetic as the 9/11 Commission.

1990 - The deposed emir of Kuwait delivered an emotional address to the U.N. General Assembly denouncing the "rape, destruction and terror" inflicted upon his country by Iraq.

If American Liberals had their way, Saddam would still be in control of Kuwait.

Never forget, the same morons who complain about the second Gulf War also voted against saving Kuwait in the original Gulf War...Yet for some reason were very quiet about Obama's adventures.

1991 - President GHW Bush announced dramatic unilateral reductions in nuclear arms, including the removal and destruction of sea-based tactical nuclear weapons.

Great...Here's hoping he completely lied on this matter; and his successors followed suit.

We must always stay on the offensive when it comes to weapons development, and never shrink to the whining of our enemies (internal or external). History is filled with 'great nation's' who got "stuck on stupid"...Great nations which no longer exist.

1998 - St. Louis Cardinal Mark McGwire's record-breaking season ended with his 69th and 70th homers.

'Roids' McGwire would do himself a big favor if he came clean...America is a forgiving nation, but can only be lied to so much.

August 28

1963 - 200,000 people participated in a peaceful civil rights rally in Washington D.C., where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his 'I Have a Dream' speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

16-minutes of pure American brilliance.

Like many great American leaders, Dr. King was no saint, but he was a great American.

His means, methods and quest were everything America should hope to be, and maybe will become...Too bad so many of his contemporaries and successors were/are nowhere near up to the challenge of polishing off his message, and instead have chosen to bastardize it.

I hope you can find 16-minutes to listen to his speech...I HAVE A DREAM .

388 - Magnus Maximus, usurping Roman Emperor, was executed by Theodosius.

Ho hum. Another coup attempt in the Empire...Which was slowly falling apart by this time.

430 - St. Augustine of Hippo died.

St. Augustine was one of the greatest of the Latin 'Fathers of the Church,' and his book, 'City of God' was the foundation for what became the Catholic Church of the Middle Ages, which not only dominated Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire, but also kept the continent from reverting to barbarism - well, as much as possible.

1565 - The oldest city in the U.S., St. Augustine, Fla., was established.

Interesting, the birth of this city is on the date of the death of the great saint.

1938 - The Mauthausen Concentration Camp opened in Austria.

This camp was nowhere near the scale of Auschwitz, but Mauthausen was a monster - the site of over 120,000 exterminated Jews at the hands of the ‘master race.' 

1990 - Iraq declared Kuwait the 19th province of Iraq, renaming Kuwait City Kadhima and creating a new district named after Saddam Hussein.

Saddam liked to think of himself as a modern-day Babylonian conqueror (like Sargon the Great) and ‘conquering’ Kuwait was the first of his goals.

He should have known the U.S. would never allow him to move toward the Saudis, though...We may have allowed him to play with Iran or Syria, but Kuwait and Saudi Arabia were out of the question.