March 11

1942 - As Japanese forces continued to advance in the Pacific during World War II, General Douglas MacArthur left the Philippines for Australia, vowing: "I shall return."

Other than Teddy Roosevelt, I have read more about 'The General' than any other American figure, and am still amazed he didn’t commit suicide or throw himself into the front lines after being ordered out of the Philippines by FDR. Of course, it was a good thing for the American war effort, but I am very surprised he left Corregidor alive...He was a chivalrous man, and it had to kill him to leave his troops to the fate of their Japanese captors.

As it turned out, returning to the Philippines was unnecessary, but it was important to MacArthur...As C-in-C, Roosevelt should have forced MacArthur to skip the Philippines, but politically there was no way Roosevelt could have kept him from fulfilling his vow.

537 - Goths laid siege to Rome.

Ho, Hum...Germanic (Goth, Vandal, etc.) raids on Rome had become a normal occurrence long before this date, and the West Roman Empire as a political entity was long gone by this time anyway.

1861 - The Confederate States of America adopted its constitution:  U.S. Civil War.

Thankfully our modern-day Liberal idiots weren't around at this time, because I don't think they would have stomached what it took to bring the South back into the Union...Sometimes war is the only answer.

1862 - President Lincoln confined George B. McClellan's command to the Army of the Potomac:  U.S. Civil War.

He should have fired him for refusal to use his forces to destroy the Confederates...McClellan would have made a great Quartermaster, and may have even been a 'brilliant' strategist, but he didn't have the guts to put his plans into effect in a timely manner, nor the killer instincts to be a battlefield commander.

1918 - The first cases of the Spanish flu were reported in the U.S.

WWI was coming to an end, but the world was hardly done dying...In the U.S., alone, over 600,000 died from this flu.  Tens of millions died worldwide.

1930 - William Howard Taft became the first President of the United States buried in the National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.

Those who haven’t been there must go...Two of the most solemn days of my life were spent at Arlington, and few things have touched me more.

1935 - Hermann Goering officially created the Luftwaffe: the German Air Force.

Congratulations to the Fat Field Marshal...We should all be glad he was in charge of this unit, because his mistakes in the Battle of Britain were the undoing of the Luftwaffe, and also led Hitler to the decision of invading Russia since he couldn't invest Britain.

Oh by the way, Goering also botched the air offensive in the Soviet Union, as well.

1941 - The U.S. Congress passed the Lend-Lease Bill, enabling Britain to borrow money to buy additional food and arms:  World War II.

How nice...The U.S. should have just entered the war, instead of waiting to be dragged in by the Japanese.

FDR's greatest flaw: He was a politician first, a statesman last...Luckily he was a great war leader once he committed to the fight.

1990 - The Lithuanian parliament voted to break away from the Soviet Union and restore the republic's independence.

This was a great year for ‘freedom,’ with the Soviets beginning to show signs of their downfall, which unknowingly began years before 1990.

THANK YOU PRESIDENT REAGAN!!

1993 - North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in a harsh rebuff of Western demands to open suspected nuclear weapons development sites for inspection.

As an incentive to play nice, Clinton gave them nuclear reactors...Uhhhhh?

1998 - The International Astronomical Union issued an alert, saying a mile-wide asteroid could zip very close to Earth on October 26th, 2028, possibly colliding with it. They said the asteroid, which had not been seen before, would pass as close as 30,000 miles to the Earth. Dr. Brian Marsden of the International Astronomical Union said: "Even if it were on a path to hit Earth, technology might be available by then capable of deflecting the asteroid." (But the next day, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said "there was no chance the asteroid will hit Earth.")

Lets pretend they knew for sure the asteroid WOULD hit Earth:

Do you think it would be a good idea to have everyone worry about it for the next 30-years? Of course not. They’d keep it quiet and try to find a way to destroy it.

So, is this what they realized the day after, or is it really not going to hit the Earth...The year 2028 may be very interesting.

October 20

2011 - Muamarr Gaddafi and his son were killed by a U.S.-supported insurgency in Libya.

I'm all for killing anti-American dictators, but we need to be careful what we ask for.  In this case we killed an anti-American dictator who was willing to be paid off to keep the peace, and replaced him with - anarchy...Anarchy among those who hate the U.S. as much, if not more than Gaddafi ever did, and aren't as likely to be appeased by cash.

Needless to say, this wasn't Barack and Hillary's finest strategic decisions...Unless their goal was to create chaos, that is.

Which is entirely possible.

1534 - The English Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy, making King Henry VIII Head of the English Church.

Henry had no concern about being excommunicated from the Roman Church, and figured he could enter his own Heaven as the leader of his own church.

1600 (September 15 on the old Chinese Calendar) - The Battle of Sekigahara.

This battle cleared the way for the Tokugawa clan to establish themselves as the rulers of Japan...The Tokugawa Shogunate was the last in Japanese history, ruling until 1868.

1818 - Great Britain and the United States signed a diplomatic convention establishing a boundary between the U.S. and Canada along the forty-ninth parallel.

The northern border has been much more finite than the Southern border, which is nothing but a figment of our imagination.

1935 - Just over a year after the start of the Long March, Mao Zedong arrived with 8,000 survivors in Yunan, where he set up the Chinese Communist headquarters.

The Long March was over, but the long war still had 14-years...Other than the fact the Communist survived the 'march,' the most important result of this event is that Mao arrived as the undisputed leader of the Chinese Communists.

1944 - General Douglas MacArthur kept his promise to return to the Philippine Islands as he landed with American forces:  World War II. Two and a-half years after he said, "I shall return."

MacArthur insisted on returning, but the Philippines were unnecessary strategically. It was important to him, though, and neither FDR or the Army had the balls to tell him no.

1944 - The Yugoslav cities of Belgrade and Dubrovnik were liberated:  World War II.

’Liberated by Soviets’ = The ultimate oxymoron.

1947 - Hollywood came under scrutiny when the House Un-American Activities Committee opened hearings into alleged Communist influence and infiltration within the motion picture industry.

I know it’s not politically correct, but McCARTHY WAS RIGHT!!!!! The proof is in the post-USSR opening of their secret files.

1973 - Arab oil-producing nations banned oil exports to the United States, following the outbreak of the Arab-Israeli war.

This event should have opened our eyes to the necessity to lessen (eliminate) our dependence on the Arab dirt-farmers.

Our national economy and defense cannot be held up by any country or group of countries. We must drill on American soil and off-shore, and also greatly increase our refining capacity...Or we can keep our heads up our ass, and allow the 'Oil Bomb' to explode in our face - again.

1975 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled teachers could spank their pupils if the pupils were warned in advance their behavior could trigger a spanking.

We’d be a much better country if we returned to these days...The loss of control in the classroom is a detriment to learning, which is a detriment to American society.

Which is exactly what Liberals want.

1993 - U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno warned the T.V. industry to limit violence in programs.

Or what? Was she going to come after Hollywood with flame-throwers, using the Waco technique?

April 11 (A Double)

1689 - The 'Glorious Revolution': William and Mary were crowned joint sovereigns of Great Britain.

The real importance of this 'revolution' was the political arrangement consolidating power in Parliament, which from here began taking power from the monarchy.

It was also nice this 'revolution' was relatively bloodless.

1961 - Soviet cosmonaut Yuri A. Gagarin became the first human in space, and also the first to orbit the earth in a spacecraft.

An amazing accomplishment for man, and an embarrassing one for America...That said, if the U.S. had been willing to simply launch astronauts up in the air (as the Soviets were) we would have beaten the Ruskies at every step in the 'Space Race.'

1713 - The Treaty of Utrecht: Ended the War of Spanish Succession.

Another in a seemingly never ending series of European wars...The French and Spanish kings agreed to renounce their claims on each other’s thrones, but the overall winner was Britain - the norm for all of these wars.

1783 - After receiving a copy of the provisional treaty on March 13, the U.S. Congress proclaimed a formal end to hostilities with Great Britain.

The American Revolution was officially over.

Unfortunately, the Brits didn’t accept the situation, and started planning the reconquest of its former colonies before the ink dried on this document...It took the War of 1812 for the Americans to prove they could defend their new nation, and put an end to any British hopes of reclaiming its former colonies.

1814 - Napoleon Bonaparte abdicated as Emperor of France and was banished to the island of Elba.

This sentence alone shows what a bunch of morons Euros are. There is no way Napoleon should have been sentenced to anything other than death...Even worse, he was put in a place he was able to escape from and returned to wreak havoc on those who gave him such a ‘polite’ sentence.

1933 - Hermann Goering became Premier of Prussia.

The ‘Fat Field-Marshal’ is by far my favorite Nazi (you know what I mean), and had a bizarre need to collect titles...For most, being Premier of Prussia would be enough, but Goering eventually collected over 50 titles.

1945 - American soldiers liberated the notorious Nazi Buchenwald Concentration Camp:  WWII.

It’s a good thing Ike insisted on getting these camps on film and documented in any way possible, because it is almost unbelievable any people could be so bestial towards another.

Amazingly, there are plenty of people who don’t believe it happened (regardless of the evidence), or simply choose to minimize the significance of what happened...Which makes them every bit as pathetic as those who ordered, allowed, and committed the crimes of the Holocaust.

1951 - President Truman relieved General Douglas MacArthur of his command in the Far East:  Korean War.

What a terrible moment for a great man...Not a perfect man, nor a perfect general.  But even his detractors have to admit he was the 'right man at the right time' in WWII and rebuilding Japan.

But he overstepped his authority in Korea.

'The General' was right in his assessment of the situation and what could have been done, but those who believe in the American System must always bow to the reality of civilian control of the military...It was set up this way for a reason, and must not only be accepted, it must be honored.

1979 - Ugandan dictator Idi Amin was overthrown.

Amin was a brutal dictator who tortured and killed 300,000-500,000 people...Incredibly, he was small potatoes compared to some of the 20th Century's other democidal dictators.

1996 - Forty-three African nations signed the African Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Treaty.

Which likely means all 43 of them would give anything to produce one, and are surely trying to do so.

2007 - Iran announced it successfully enriched uranium.

Great...At this point, it's a small event.  Over time it may jump up the ladder.