January 9

1905 – 'Bloody Sunday': The name given the day the Russians in St. Petersburg started their long struggle against the Tsarist regime, beginning the Russian Revolution of 1905.

Do not confuse this with the ‘Communist Revolution' in 1917...This was an attempt by the people to force the Czar to give them representation, which he eventually did with the establishment of the Duma/Parliament. Not that it did much for the people.

What it did do, however, was give the people a taste of revolt...It also gave some of the future communist leaders of the 1917 Revolution a little practice in rabble-rousing - particularly Leon Trotsky.

1861 - The first hostile act of the U.S. Civil War occurred when the Confederate 'Star of the West' fired on Fort Sumter.

Understand this action was not part of the Battle of Fort Sumter, but it was an inevitable beginning to the most destructive war in American History...It's also important to keep in mind this war had to be fought, because sometimes war is the only answer.

1945 - American troops invaded the Philippine island of Luzon and went on to liberate Manila:  WWII.

MacArthur “returned”...I love the guy, but the fact MacArthur staged and filmed his wading ashore is more than a little wacky. But he did what he promised, and eventually liberated the Philippines.

Unfortunately, by this time recovering the Philippines was probably unnecessary and delayed the endgame of destroying the Japanese Empire.

1945 - Major Raymond Cromley, head of the top secret 'Dixie Mission,' sent a cable to U.S. military headquarters in Chunking which said Mao Tse-tung would like to send a group to President Roosevelt to explain the situation in China. Ambassador Patrick J. Hurley, who opposed the meeting, intercepted the message and failed to pass it to Roosevelt:  WWII.

Who knows how this would have affected post-WWII China, but it is a strange event, and a case of treason in my opinion by Ambassador Hurley.

1951 - The United Nations headquarters officially opened in New York City.

Ugh!! Why did we have to put the 'Circle Jerk Group' on American soil? Amsterdam, Paris, or even Damascus would have been a much more logical site.

1991 - Major League Baseball banned Pete Rose from being in the Hall of Fame.

For gambling on baseball, Pete was 'banned for life', and he should be banned from the Hall 'for life', as well...Which means Rose should be inducted as soon as he dies.

2000 - The controversial 'Sensation' art exhibit ended its three-month run at the Brooklyn Museum, which had gotten into a fight with New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani over what the mayor called the exhibits offensive anti-Catholic content.

Here’s a quote about the content of the show: “Chris Ofili's work titled 'The Holy Virgin Mary;' it is this work - a depiction of a black Madonna adorned with elephant dung and sexually-explicit photos.”

Very nice.

This kind of "dung" is protected by the First Amendment in Liberalville. Which is also the same insane asylum where saying the 'Pledge of Allegiance' is considered a violation of the mythical ‘separation of church and state’ clause.

By the way, has anyone found that part of the Constitution yet?

2002 - Lawyers advised the Pentagon the Geneva Conventions do not apply to the Taliban or al Qaeda and the president has the authority to suspend the Geneva Conventions.

I want to get sick every time I hear about the 'Geneva Conventions'...The only fools who follow them is the U.S.

"War is Hell," and should only be entered into if it is going to be fought as a battle to get out of Hell...Playing by 'rules of nicety' is ridiculous. Heaven knows our enemies don't worry about such idiocy.

December 27

1927 - Joseph Stalin's faction won at the All-Union Congress in the Soviet Union.  Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party.

What a 'lucky' day for the people of the USSR...Lenin couldn’t have left a better psychopath to perfect his Hell State, and Trotsky was soon to be on the run for his life.

That said, as much of a butcher as Uncle Joe was, it's likely he was also the force which kept Germany from conquering the Ruskies - even though he completely botched the first year of the war.

1512 - The Laws of Burgos gave New World natives legal protection against abuse, and authorized "Negro slavery."

How generous. The Spanish knew they could never control the Indians through enslavement, but did a good job of enslaving them without slavery...They had no such problem with the blacks they shipped in, though.

1558 - English Queen Elizabeth issued a proclamation forbidding any other kind of worship other that used at the close of the reign of Henry VIII.

This form of worship was the English version of Protestantism - the Anglican Church...The Roman Catholic Church picked its allies (led by Spain) and made a historic mistake, because England and the Protestant world was soon much more powerful than Spain.

1941 - Japanese war planes bombed Manila in the Philippines, even though it had been declared an "open city":  WWII.

An 'open city?' What kind of BS is that?...MacArthur knew it was a long-shot, but felt it was worth trying.

1943 - President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the U.S. Army to take temporary possession of all railroads in order to prevent a strike by railway workers. The action was taken under the wartime Labor Disputes Act:  WWII.

It’s amazing to think of a union going on strike in the middle of a war, but this just shows they care more about themselves than the good of the country...FDR was absolutely correct in taking this action and should have locked up the union leaders as subversive SOB’s.

The railroads were returned to private management on January 18, 1944.

1944 - General George S. Patton's Third Army, spearheaded by the 4th Armored Division, relieved the surrounded city of Bastogne in Belgium:  WWII.

There’s no way the 'Battling Bastards of Bastogne' (101st Airborne Division) should have been able to survive the German onslaught, but they fought long enough for Patton to arrive - establishing themselves in the lore of American military tradition.

1996 - France said it would no longer participate in Operation Provide Comfort after the end of the year. The operation was a multi-national air reconnaissance effort to safeguard Kurdish civilians in northern Iraq.

Instead France decided to start participating in ‘Operation Accept Bribes’...Otherwise known as the ‘U.N. Oil-for-Food Program.'

1998 - A vaccine for AIDS, by VaxGen Inc., was reported to be in Phase III clinical trials. It was derived from g-120, a genetically engineered protein copied from a protein found in the HIV virus.

I have a vaccine for AIDS as well; it's much cheaper, and more effective: Don’t be promiscuous, don’t use IV drugs, and don’t have homosexual sex.

Nah! How dare I propose people control themselves for their own good.

2000 - President Bill Clinton appointed Roger Gregory as the first black American judge to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia.

Woopty Doo! President GHW Bush put a black man in the Supreme Court before this event...But that doesn’t count, because Justice Thomas is considered an ‘Uncle Tom’ in Liberalville, which is the only place they are keeping score, anyway.

2001 - President George W. Bush granted China permanent normal trade status with the United States.

It is ugly, but there is no way we can isolate China...And it's likely, furthering trade with China will draw it out of its communist shell anyway.

2001 - U.S. officials announced Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners would be held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The ACLU(seless) would rather they be given a ‘time out’ and put in the corner...Thankfully President Bush had the testicular fortitude to stand up to the 'Enemies Within' who seem more than happy to help our ‘Enemies Without’ destroy our nation.

Wait a minute!  I thought Obama was going to close Gitmo?  Nah!  He left it open, but released many of it's bad hombres.

2002 - A defiant North Korea ordered U.N. nuclear inspectors to leave the country and said it would restart a laboratory capable of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons. The U.N. nuclear watchdog said its inspectors were "staying put" for the time being .

Hans Blix to the rescue...Pull the U.N. morons out, and tell China to take care of North Korea. I’m sure there is something they’d like in exchange.

September 6 (A Triple)

394 - Battle of the River Frigidus.

Theodosius was the emperor of the eastern portion of the Roman Empire, and in this battle he defeated Eugenius, emperor of the western portion...As a result, Theodosius re-united the entire Roman Empire. He was the last to do so, and the empire split for good shortly after his reign.

Another important result of this battle was Theodosius was a Christian and Eugenius a pagan. Eugenius's defeat is seen as a final victory in the empire for Christianity over paganism.

1522 - One of the five ships which set out on Ferdinand Magellan's trip around the world made it back to Spain. Only 15 of the original 265 men who began the trip survived.  Magellan was killed by natives in the Philippines.

Magellan was one of the ‘astronauts’ of his time. Too bad he didn’t finish the trip, like the other 95% of his crew...As captain of the fleet, though, Magellan receives credit for circumnavigating the globe, but it was really his lieutenant, Juan Sebastian Del Cano, who captained the final leg of the journey.

1566 - Suleiman 'the Lawgiver (also called 'the Magnificent') died.

Suleiman was a 'magnificent' ruler and the Ottoman Empire reached its greatest strength and size during his reign: Stretching from Vienna to Yemen and Aden, from Persia to Oran, and his navy dominated the Mediterranean Sea, which put him within arms reach of much of Europe, Asia and North Africa.

Here’s what Suleiman had to say about himself: “I, who am Sultan of the Sultans of East and West, fortunate lord of the domains of the Romans, Persians, and Arabs, Hero of creation, Neriman of the earth and time, Padishah and Sultan of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, of the extolled Kaaba and Medina the illustrious and Jerusalem of the noble, of the throne of Egypt and the province of Yemen, Aden, and San'a, of Baghdad and Basra and Lhasa and Ctesiphon, of the lands of Algiers and Azerbaijan, of the region of the Kipshaks and the lands of the Tartars, of Kurdistan and Luristan and all Rumelia, Anatolia and Karaman, of Wallachia and Moldavia and Hungary and many kingdoms and lands besides; the Sultan Suleyman Khan, son of the Sultan Selim Khan.”

That's fantastic!!  Needless to say, Suleiman thought very highly of himself; something which was as much a reality as a figment of his imagination.

Note:  You may have noticed he claimed to rule the "domains of the Romans"...This is true, but it wasn't Rome he was talking about; it was Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine portion of the Roman Empire.

1776 - The first submarine attack occurred when an American sub attacked the British warship Eagle in New York harbor:  American Revolutionary War.

Calling this vessel a 'submarine' is a stretch, but it was a submersible boat...More like a can in the water than a modern sub, though.

1901 - President William McKinley was shot while attending a reception at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, by anarchist Leon Czolgosz.

McKinley died eight days later, becoming the third American President to be assassinated.

The death of a president is a terrible event for the nation to recover from, but the U.S. was lucky to have a worthy successor in the person of Vice President Theodore Roosevelt....Looking back, this is easy to identify but at the time many were horrified by the reality of the 'roughneck Roosevelt' becoming president.

Luckily, the U.S. has almost always been blessed with the 'right man at the right time,' and a better leader could not have been asked for, because Roosevelt proved to be one of the greatest presidents in American history...The most conservative Liberal president ever, and the most liberal Conservative president ever.

I hope you understand what I mean by this, and the differentiation between the capital and lower case C/c and L/l.

1941 - Jews six years of age and older were ordered to wear yellow Stars of David in Nazi-occupied areas:  WWII.

Making it easier to identify them prior to processing and extermination.

1943 - The United States asked the Chinese Nationalists to join with the Communists to present a common front against the Japanese:  WWII.

This would have been nice, but in reality the only 'common front' they established was the one between each other.

1953 - Operation Big Switch: The last American and Korean prisoners were exchanged - the final official act of the Korean War.

The last American reached 'Freedom Village,' and the Korean War came to an unofficial end.

This war was the first America didn’t win, but we didn’t lose either. Ties are disgraceful to many Americans, but the millions of South Koreans who have lived in relative peace and freedom for the past 50-years are proof that ties are better than losses.

I highly recommend you read this excerpt from “Chicken Soup for the Veteran’s Soul: Freedom Village”.

1995 - Baseball player Cal Ripken, Jr., broke Lou Gehrig's iron man record by playing in his 2,131st straight game.

I love Cal, and he was one of my favorite players when I was a boy...That said, had I been Cal I would have tied the record, not broken it.

The beauty of the record isn’t the number of games played. The beauty of the record is it was Lou Gehrig’s record, and I would have wanted my name right next to the ‘Iron Horse’, not on top of it...But that’s just me.

July 11

1804 - Vice President Aaron Burr mortally wounded former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton in a pistol duel.

Hamilton died the following afternoon...I hope you understand this was the Vice President of the U.S. dueling Hamilton - former Treasury Secretary and one of the most brilliant men of the period.

Politics has always been messy, and the battles of our time are pretty tame compared to those of the past...So, next time you hear a TV talking-head say politics is "worse now than ever," remember this incident and also remember modern-day hyperbole experts are trying to play you for an uneducated fool.

1613 - Michael Romanov was crowned Czar of Russia.

Michael founded the Romanov Dynasty, which ruled Russia for the next 300+ years...A dynasty which pulled Russia out of what was a semi-barbaric state of existence until their time.

1798 - The U.S. Congress re-established the Marine Corps, disbanded in 1784.

I had no idea the Marine Corps was disbanded after the Revolutionary War. The site listed gives the Marine Corps much better due than I can: History of the Marine Corps.

1862 - President Lincoln appointed Henry Halleck as General-in-Chief of the U.S. Army:  U.S. Civil War.

Halleck was the 'grand old man of the Army,' but it's a good thing Lincoln recognized he was useful as a desk-general and little else...Unfortunately, the fools Lincoln appointed as field commanders in the early part of the Civil War were as useless as Halleck as a field commander behind his desk.

1863 - The first U.S. Military draft was held:  U.S. Civil War.

The nation was in need as never before, and the draft was an absolute necessity...Sadly, it will eventually be needed again.

1944 - President Franklin Roosevelt said he would run for a fourth term.

FDR was an excellent wartime president, but he had no business running for a third term - a fourth was absurd...George Washington set the standard and no president had ever pushed his bounds past that set by Washington.

1945 - The U. S. Army used napalm on Japanese forces on the island of Luzon in the Philippines:  WWII. This is the first recorded use of napalm.

Napalm, Nukes, blah, blah, blah. When you commit to war, you must commit to winning...Not doing so has been our downfall since WWII.

1955 - The U.S. Air Force Academy was dedicated at Lowry Air Base in Colorado.

A brilliant school for the world's greatest air fighting force...A force defined by much more than planes.

1955 - The U.S. Congress said all U.S. currency would carry the term "In God We Trust."

OH MY GOD!!!! I bet you cringe every time you pull a dollar out of your wallet knowing such a vile inscription is on that dollar.

Of course you don't, but this is what the Commie-Libs want us to believe.

May 6

1994 - The Channel Tunnel was completed.  For the first time since the Ice Age, a direct link connected Britain and mainland Europe.

This is an awesome feat of engineering...No surprise the Brits did most of the heavy lifting, but the French have reason to be proud as well.

Unfortunately for the Brits, the 'Chunnel' will likely be a German invasion route after the next time the Frenchies roll over to the Krauts...Or maybe it'll be a Muslim invasion?
 
Invasion or no invasion, you can bet the Channel Tunnel is very high on the list of Jihadi terror sites.

1527 - Charles V's Spanish and German troops began the 'Sack of Rome.'

This sounds like the Emperor attacked the Church, but it was not the case...At the time, Rome was a pawn between the French and Charles, and the Emperor had to take Rome in order to keep it from France.

The fact his troops sacked the city was a sad byproduct of a war-torn era...This sacking is also considered the end of the Renaissance Period by many historians.

1861 - Confederate President Jefferson Davis approved a bill declaring war between the U.S. and C.S.A.:  U.S. Civil War.

Kind of an afterthought, but at least the war was 'officially' on.

1935 - The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was established under the direction of long-time aide to President Roosevelt, Harry Hopkins. The WPA philosophy was to put the unemployed back to work in jobs which would serve the public good and conserve the skills and the self-esteem of workers throughout the U.S.

All of FDR’s 'work projects' were better than modern welfare 'give-aways,' but some were pretty pathetic.

Example: 5,300 visual artists, 16,000 musicians, 12,700 theater workers, 6,686 writers, and others were given Federal employment...No wonder most who have these jobs are now absolute Democrats?

1937 - The hydrogen-filled German dirigible 'Hindenburg' burned and crashed in Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 36 of the 97 people on board.

How all 97 people didn't die is amazing.

1941 - Josef Stalin became the official leader of the Soviet government (replacing Vyacheslav M. Molotov) by appointing himself Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars.

I hope you know this is true, yet untrue...Prior to this time Stalin wasn’t the titular head of the USSR, but he was the leader in reality as dictator, which is all that matters.

The fact he 'appointed himself' should be a pretty good clue of this truth.

1942 - Some 15,000 Americans and Filipinos on Corregidor surrendered to the Japanese:  WWII.

The Fall of Corregidor gave the Japanese the highest ranking American soldier ever captured in battle (excluding the U.S. Civil War): Lt. Gen. Jonathan M. Wainwright.

When MacArthur left the Philippines for Australia, he put Wainwright in overall command, and ordered him to defend the Philippines to the last man...This was a fools order, because the battle wasn’t winnable and was completely unnecessary strategically.

Wainwright was right to surrender when he did, and saved the lives of many American troops. Even though they suffered through years of captivity and torture...The only other choice was fighting to the last man - which would have been happened.

1997 - President Bill Clinton wrapped up his visit to Mexico as he and Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo pledged closer cooperation on immigration and drug smuggling.

If their goal was to INCREASE 'immigration and drug smuggling' they were wildly successful...Unfortunately, I think at least one of the two was the goal.

1998 - Astronomers announced the detection of a gamma ray burst in a galaxy 12 billion light years away that was equal to the energy expended by the sun in one trillion years.

We are very small!!

April 9

1865 - The U.S. Civil War effectively came to an end when Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia.

The most horrible and destructive war in American history ended - excluding some minor fighting in the west and deep south...The Union was kept whole and slavery was on the way out.

I wonder if the anti-war jackasses believe this war wasn’t worth fighting?

'Sometimes War is the ONLY Answer.'

1942 - American and Philippine defenders on Bataan surrendered to Japanese forces:  WWII.

"The Battling Bastards of Bataan,
No Mama, No Papa, No Uncle Sam,
No aunts, no uncles, no cousins, no nieces,
No pills, no planes, no artillery pieces,
And nobody gives a damn!"
- by Frank Hewlett, 1942

Unfortunately their surrender simply began a new phase in Hell: The 'Bataan Death March,' where about 10,000 of the nearly 75,000 perished.

1963 - Winston Churchill was made an honorary U.S. citizen.

A great American indeed...The most important man in the ‘Free World’ in the entire 20th Century.

That said, this is somewhat of a sham, because Churchill's mother was an American, which makes him an American by birth.

1989 - Hundreds of thousands of people marched in Washington D.C., demanding continued safe and legal abortions, and urging the Supreme Court to uphold its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

You should notice they left out the 'rare' portion of the phrase...How could they not, considering there have been over 45,000,000 abortions in U.S. since 1973.

I know this will be upsetting to some:  To a certain extent I can live with safe and legal abortions as long as they are also 'rare'...But to have them as a means of birth control is barbaric at best.

2003 - American Marines pulled down Saddam Hussein’s statue in Baghdad after U.S. commanders declared his rule ended.

The American Left has nothing but disregard for this event. I bet if it happened under a Democrat president they would have supported it...I would have supported it if Clinton or Obama did it as well, but this is just one of the many differences between Right and Left.