November 16

1532 - The Incan Empire fell to Spanish conqueror Francisco Pizarro.

Atahualpa invited the Spaniards in on the 15th, and Pizzaro wasted no time imprisoning the Incan Emperor.

The Incas had no way of knowing, but they followed the mistakes of the Sumerians, Etruscans, Scythians, Hittites, Romans, etc., etc., and were soon to join them in the trash-heap of history...Someday our people will follow this same path, after being conquered by either a more advanced or more barbaric people - I hope you understand it could be either.

1621 - The Roman Church adopted January 1st as the beginning of the calendar year. Previously, March was the first month, which explains why our modern names for the 9th-12th months begin with prefixes meaning: '7' (sept), '8' (oct) '9' (nov) and '10' (dec).

Just a little FYI.

It’s also important to note, this was agreed on by the Roman Church, but Protestants, Orthodox Christians and the non-Christian world took no part in changing the date...Which is why dates always must be taken with a grain-of-salt. In general dates are good, but it is events and their results which are important.

1933 - The United States and the Soviet Union established diplomatic relations. President Roosevelt sent a telegram to Soviet leader Maxim Litvinov expressing hope that U.S.-Soviet relations would "forever remain normal and friendly."

The Communists had a solid grip on power for at least the previous decade, so not 'recognizing' the USSR till this time was stupid...Expecting “normal and friendly” relations was equally stupid.

1973 - President Nixon signed the Alaska Pipeline law.

Maybe someday another Congress and president will pull their heads out of their asses and do the same in ANWAR...And maybe we’ll also decide it might be a good idea to drill throughout the U.S. and offshore.

Until this time, however, the world oil market will continue to be at the will of the lunatics in the Middle East, Russia, Venezuela, Nigeria, etc.

1991 - Boris Yeltsin issued a series of decrees effectively transferring control of his republic's economy from the Soviet central government to the Russian Federation.

Unfortunately, Yeltsin was much more successful at dissolving the Soviet state than establishing a well-run Russian one...It's also unfortunate that Yeltsin's successor - Putin - has been much more successful establishing the Russian state.

Notice I didn't say a well-run Russian state.  Putin has re-established the patterns of the past instead of forwarding Russia into the modern world...A reality which is not positive for the Russian people - nor the rest of the world.

1991 - Former Democratic Governor Edwin Edwards of Louisiana was overwhelmingly elected, defeating former Ku Klux Klan member David Duke.

I’m a solid 'anti-Democrat,' which leads me to vote Republican even though I don’t like them much either...I’ve never voted for a Democrat in my life, and don’t see any case in the near future where I will - though Senator McCain tries my patience every six years.

That said, if I were from Louisiana (perish the thought), I would have voted (D) in this election.

There is no excuse for ever supporting a KKK member (past or current)...Shame on those who did in this election, and shame on those in West Virginia who put a former Grand Cyclops, Bobby 'KKK' Byrd (D), in the Congress (both houses) for five decades.

1993 - The U.S. Senate voted to approve a measure designed to protect people who provide or seek abortions from physical attacks or intimidation by abortion opponents.

I’m against abortion, but this vote was proper...The current law allows for fetal-homicides, and as much as it repulses me it is the law.

There are many laws I don't like, but the U.S. is a nation of laws, and the answer is not to attack individuals receiving or performing abortions. The answer is to work towards changing the law.

1994 - A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting California from implementing most provisions of Prop 187, the voter-approved measure denying most public services to illegal aliens.

So much for “the will of the people”...Prop 187 passed by a landslide (59%), but Liberals didn’t have to win the vote, because they knew they could find an appeals court ‘in hand.’  They also knew even further down the judicial path was the 9th Circuit Court - always a beacon of light for Liberal degeneracy.

November 15

1777 - The Continental Congress approved the Articles of Confederation, a precursor to the Constitution of the United States:  American Revolutionary War.

I hope you know the Constitution wasn't the first form of government in the United States. If you've been following along, you should know this...But I know the 'unknowledge' taught in public school is difficult to break through.

I recommend you read about the Articles of Confederation...It was a system destined to failure, but guided the young nation through it's first years of independence.

1533 - Spaniards entered the Inca holy city of Cuzco

Atahualpa disregarded the 'First Rule of Invasions' by letting the Spanish live a day past the beaches...Then he multiplied the mistake by inviting them into his realm.

The cost of these mistakes proved tragic to the chief, and the Incas in general...Such is history.

1864 - Union General William Tecumseh Sherman began his 'March from Atlanta to the Sea':  U.S. Civil War.

Sherman wasn't a butcher, but he did burn much of Atlanta to the ground...Which you might think of as barbaric.

But, it was men like Grant, Sherman and Lincoln who understood the only way to end the brutality of the Civil War was to force the South to submit...This is the case in every war!!! Which is why fighting politically correct wars is a recipe for disaster.

1939 - The Social Security Administration approved the first unemployment check.

What's the best way to keep people from working? Give them benefits for not working...What's the best way to stagnate a nation's economy? Increase unemployment.

I'm no rocket-scientist, but it only takes a little calculus to put the two ideas together to notice unemployment benefits keep people from working, which hurts the economy.

I'm sure this wasn't FDR's goal, but I do wonder about the goals of those who insist on perpetuating this failed system.

1996 - Former State Department official Alger Hiss, who fell from grace in a communist spy scandal, died.

GOOD!! He should have been executed in the 1940's-50's - a penalty all traitorous scumbags should receive.

There's no way he should been allowed to lived to see his 92nd birthday.

1999 - The Clinton administration claimed victory in a seven-year struggle to persuade Congress to pay nearly $1 billion in back dues to the United Nations.

Check out Clinton claiming 'victory' for giving away the American taxpayer's hard earned money to the U.N...Makes me sick.

We owe the U.N. nothing!! If anything, continuing to prop up this rogue group does nothing but put the U.S. at risk.

September 26

1414 - The export of gunpowder from England was prohibited.

Every era has seen the hope of banning weapons technology and keeping them in the hands of those who have them...And every era has seen these efforts fail.

War is a constant in the human condition, and the human desire to procure the means of making war are stronger than those to stop war.
 
The Clausewitz-Pero Corollary
Clausewitz: “War is the continuation of Politics by other means."
Pero: “Politics is the continuation of War by other means.”

Clausewitz was correct, but he had the ordering wrong.  War came first, and is a natural human instinct...Politics is the civilized method of warfare. Even when it is barely civil.

1371 - The Battle of Maritsa.

Another in the long process of the Turks overwhelming the Balkans, defeating the Serbians.

Had it not been for the Crusaders and the Habsburg Empire, the Ottomans might have overwhelmed all of Europe.

1580 - Sir Francis Drake returned to England with a shipload of loot from the Spanish after the first successful circumnavigation of the globe by an Englishman.

Drake was a great naval commander...And an even greater pirate.

1789 - Thomas Jefferson was appointed America's first Secretary of State; John Jay the first Chief Justice of the United States; Samuel Osgood the first Postmaster-General; and Edmund Jennings Randolph the first Attorney General.

The young nation was evolving, and luckily had many brilliant, fertile minds to choose from.

Thank God the modern-day idiots weren't around back then, or the ‘American Experiment’ would have blown up in the lab.

1913 - The first boat was raised in the locks of the Panama Canal.

The world shrunk with this event...No longer would commerce have to travel to the tip of South America (a terribly dangerous trip, due to weather patterns) to get to and from Europe and Africa to the U.S. West Coast or the Orient.

This event also greatly reduced the importance of the South American countries bypassed due to the Canal crossing (Brazil, Chile, etc.)

1941 - Nazis slaughtered about 34,000 Jews in Kiev:  WWII.

34,000 in 24 hours = 1,400+/hour = 23+/minute.

An impressive day for the 'Master Race Killing Machine'...Especially considering this was before the 'Final Solution' perfected the gassing/oven technique.

1960 - The first televised debate between presidential candidates Richard Nixon and John Kennedy took place.

Kennedy looked and sounded great...Nixon looked like a sweaty corpse, and sounded like Hell.

Needless to say, this event went a long way in JFK getting elected...That and the Mob, of course.

September 17 (THE GREATEST DAY OF THE YEAR)

AS THE GREATEST DATE IN HISTORY (at least in Peroville), EVERY EVENT IS HIGHLIGHTED IN BLUE.
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1776 - Along the western coast of North America, a party of 247 Spanish colonists consecrated their newly-founded mission known as San Francisco.

These 247 people would be in absolute horror to see the filth, perversity and degeneracy which has taken over their city.

1787 - The United States Constitution was signed by a majority of the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention.

Happy Constitution Day!!!

It's important to remember the three 'battles' which created and sealed our great country.

- The Declaration of Independence was the striking announcement of our intention to liberate from the Brits, and our aspiration to be a 'different' kind of nation.
- The Constitution was the rule book for our existence.
- The Civil War cemented our union.

All three were necessary to the creation and permanence of the United States of America...All three will either be honored in the present and future or their goals and successes will be lost forever - a reality which is always just one generation away from breaking us all.

1778 - The first treaty between the United States and Indian tribes was signed at Fort Pitt.

Treaties are nice, but they are always temporary...And each one the U.S. signed with the Indians was meant as a means of buying peace, while preparing the next conquest.

Such is the history of the world. Those who don’t believe this are simply ignorant to the brutal reality of history.

1796 - President George Washington delivered his 'Farewell Address' to Congress before concluding his second term in office, setting the stage for the nation's first two-party presidential campaign.

The importance of the 'Indispensable Man' is impossible to put a calculus on.

The Revolution would have likely failed without him and the Republic would never have survived it’s early years without his leadership...Read Washington’s Farewell Address.

1862 - The Battle of Antietam: U.S. Civil War.

The Battle of Antietam was the first major battle in the American Civil War...It is still the bloodiest day in U.S. history.

There were well over 23,000 casualties in the battle, with no clear cut winner, which made it a strategic victory for the Union because it could afford to absorb such huge losses...Unfortunately, that eventual victory was years away.

1902 - U.S. troops were sent to Panama to keep train-lines open over the isthmus as Panamanian nationals struggled for independence from Colombia.

Make no mistake, President Roosevelt didn't do this to help the Panamanians, it was to keep the proposed Canal Project alive - and to make sure the U.S. controlled it...Perfectly good reasons, and one of the many reasons TR is still one of our greatest foreign policy president ever.

1920 - The American Professional Football Association (a precursor of the NFL) was formed in Canton, Ohio.

Baseball is America’s pastime, but football is it’s favorite sport.

1939 - The Soviet Union invaded Poland:  WWII.

The Soviet ‘double-cross’ was on, and Poland was soon swallowed up in the West by Germany and the East by the Ruskies -just like in the Partitions.

The Jews have been the most abused single ethnic group in European history, but there are few other people who’ve suffered as much as the Poles, who had the unfortunate fate of landing between the Russian and German beasts.

Who know’s what Uncle Joe’s intentions were, but helping the Germans bought him space and time...Within two years the Nazi’s were marching through Poland to the Soviet Union and the extra distance and time saved the Soviets.

That said, the entire Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was reason enough for the Allies to turn their backs on the Soviets and let them hammer it out with the Germans from 1941-43, while the U.S. and Brits hit at the 'Soft underbelly of the German Empire.'

1942 - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met with Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin in Moscow as the German Army rammed into Stalingrad:  WWII.

Stalin bitched and cried about the lack of an Allied offensive on the continental mainland, but Churchill insisted on the 'underbelly' strategy...And pretty much gave Stalin the middle-finger.

See the 1939 event...The Soviets got what they deserved.

1944 - British airborne troops parachuted into Holland to capture the Arnhem Bridge as part of Operation Market-Garden. The plan called for the airborne troops to be relieved by British troops, but they were left stranded and eventually surrendered to the Germans:  WWII.

Field Marshal Montgomery was a pansy, and this operation bore the fruit of his pathetic nature...It went SOUR.

1970 - PERO'S BIRTHDAY!

It's my blog, and as such I determine the greatness of the days and events...On this greatest of days, this is the greatest event to me personally - the most important day of my life.  A life for which I am forever grateful to so many for making a wonderful one.

1978 - After meeting at Camp David, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat signed a framework for a peace treaty.

In an administration of constant bungling, this was Carter’s one and only achievement, which was really set up and brokered by the Nixon/Ford Administration...But we can’t take Jimmy’s only highlight away from him.

September 10

1823 - Simon Bolivar, leader in the wars for independence against Spain in Venezuela, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, was named President of Peru, with dictatorial powers.

Bolivar was the great leader of the South American independence movement, and took his ‘natural place' as the new overlord of the region.

I hope you understand the importance of what I just said...Compare it to that of the American Revolution.

George Washington could have easily set himself up as King of the United States (and many were surprised he didn’t), but instead this great man chose to set the new nation on a greater path...Bolivar wasn't out of the norm - Washington was.

1349 - Jews who survived a massacre in Constance, Germany were burned to death.

'If at first you don't succeed...'

I bet you thought the Holocaust started with Nazi Germany.

1547 - The Battle of Pinkie Cleugh, Edinburgh: The Scots were defeated by the English, in a battle sparked by English demands that Edward VI, aged 10, should marry Mary Queen of Scots, aged 5.

Nice...Who in their right mind would force two children to marry?? Or go to war, when it didn’t happen?

1813 – The Battle of Lake Erie: War of 1812.

After defeating the British in this War of 1812 naval battle, Commodore Oliver H. Perry sent the famous message, "We have met the enemy, and they are ours."

Also of note, this was the first defeat for a modern British naval squadron.

1861 – The Battle of Carnifex Ferry, Virginia: U.S. Civil War.

The Confederates were forced to fall back in this battle, which was important because the ‘Virginians’ of this area were against seceding from the Union...And these ‘Virginians’ soon became the new state of West Virginia.

1913 - The Lincoln Highway opened, becoming the first paved coast-to-coast highway in the United States. It is now known as U.S. 30.

The beginning of the interstate highway system.

1914 - The Battle of the Marne ended: WWI.

The German offensive was stopped, and it took three more years before either side in the West saw an open battlefield again...Trench warfare became the mode of battle, and resulted in mass slaughter from the air, artillery and disease.

1919 - New York City welcomed home General John J. Pershing and 25,000 soldiers who'd served in the U.S. First Division during World War I.

Back in the day, when the military was universally looked at as ‘good guys’...Instead of the current situation Liberals have created - of hating the military.

1919 - The Treaty of Saint-Germain was signed by the victorious Allied powers and Austria. Parts of pre-war German Austria were ceded to Italy and Czechoslovakia, and Austria was forbidden to unite with Germany.

This treaty was one of the many seeds of WWII...Hitler used it as an excuse to claim much of Czechoslovakia, and as a means of recovering German and Austrian lands.

He completely ignored the 'forbidden' part of uniting Austria and Germany...As an Austrian himself, how could he not?

1952 - West Germany offered Israel $540 million in compensation for Nazi atrocities.

Lets do the math, again: $540,000,000 for 9,000,000 dead Jews = $60 per dead Jew...Even by 1950's money standards that seems a little low.

1979 - Four Puerto Rican nationalists imprisoned for a 1954 attack on the U.S. House of Representatives and a 1950 attempt on the life of President Truman were granted clemency by President Carter.

1. Why weren’t they executed?

2. What in the Hell did Carter let them out for?

1993 - First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton lashed out at what she called "stand pat, negative, nay-saying" opponents of health reform in an address to state legislators.

Americans didn't want to hear Hillary's scheme. What we had wasn't perfect; what she wanted was even worse...Even worse than hers is ObamaCare - a system which has done nothing but confuse the issue.

August 29 (A Triple)

1533 - Atahualpa, last of the Inca rulers, was strangled under the orders of Spanish conqueror Francisco Pizarro.

The Incan Empire ended on this day, and the Spanish Empire assumed absolute control over much of South America...The natives should have never let the invaders get past the beach. Failing to follow this simple 'First Rule of Invasions' cost them their civilization.

1949 - The Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb.

It was going to happen eventually (between the German scientists and American traitors), but it was a sad day for the free people of the world when the Soviet Hell State proved it conquered the atom - becoming a peer competitor of the U.S.
 
2005 - Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. Gulf Coast; primarily Louisiana and Mississippi. The death toll from Katrina reached over 1,000 and property damage estimates were in the hundreds of billions of dollars.

Hurricane Katrina was a terrible natural catastrophe and a boondoggle of epic proportions on the state and federal level...Another of the many reasons I'll never understand why people put such trust in government to take care of them - which was (and still is) the case for far too many of the people in the entire country.

That said, it was also an event which was going to happen eventually, and when it did was going to cause massive suffering due to the fact that people who live below sea-level on coastlines are all but asking to be inundated by the ocean sooner or later.

30 (traditional date) - St. John, the Baptist, was beheaded.

John was the first Christian martyr...There were many more, including Christ himself in a few years.

70 - Romans burned the gates and entered the courtyard of the Second Temple of Jerusalem.

It was almost 1,900 years before the Jews reclaimed their home...It’s important they rebuild the Temple, in my opinion. Sadly, I don't see it happening.

It's also likely they'll have to perpetually fight for the survival of their modern state, too...Sadly, I don't see this ending well, either.

1842 - The Treaty of Nanjing was signed between the British and Chinese, ending the first Opium War. The treaty confirmed the ceding of Hong Kong to Britain.

This was the first of the 'Unequal Treaties' China signed with the various world powers. These treaties destroyed much of China’s sovereignty, and were known as unequal because China wasn’t treated as an equal partner by those it was forced to deal with.

Don't think for one minute the Chinese have forgotten these events.

1852 - The Latter Day Saints first published their doctrine of 'celestial marriage': polygamy. The Mormon Church maintained this teaching until the Manifest of 1890 (and later Congressional legislation) outlawed the practice.

Unfortunately for Mormons, this is an issue which continues to cause discomfort for most Americans with Mormonism...Many aspects of the LDS are misunderstood, or understood but disliked, but it is polygamy which sets it firmly apart from traditional American religious life - even though most modern Mormons aren't polygamists.

That said, if any 'two people who love each' can get married, why can't any three? four? five?, etc.

1862 – The Second Battle of Bull Run (Manassas):  Civil War.

The battle began on the 28th and ended on the 30th - but it was decided on the 29th.

General John Pope and 75,000 Federal troops were defeated by 55,000 Confederate troops under Generals Stonewall Jackson and James Longstreet in another Union debacle which had the possibility of ending the Civil War early on.

Unfortunately, President Lincoln hadn’t found the commanding general it would take to defeat the Confederates...He had to wait till 1863 before Grant stepped up at Vicksburg.

1944 - 15,000 American troops marched down the Champs Elysees in Paris as the French capital continued to celebrate its liberation from the Nazis:  WWII.

If 15 American troops marched through today, they’d be cackled and booed...Bunch of ungrateful scumbags. If it weren’t for Americans the French would be speaking German, or either bars of soap or lampshades.

July 12

1920 - The Panama Canal was officially opened by President Woodrow Wilson.

There had been many attempts to link the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, but it took the Americans to get it done...The project began in 1881, and officially opened on this date, but the first ship actually sailed through on January 7, 1914.

I still can't believe Jimmy Carter gave the canal to Panama, who is in the process of ceding informal control of it to China...There will come a day when America will regret this decision in a terrible way.

1290 - Jews were expelled from England.

From the farthest reaches of Eastern Europe (Russia) to Western Europe (England), every European country has either thrown their Jews out or executed them...It is universal, it is timeless, and it is disgusting.

And no, I am not a Jew.

1843 - Mormon Church founder Joseph Smith announced a divine revelation had been given to him sanctioning polygamy among his newly organized religious followers.

There are many issues of contention between the Mormons and 'average Americans,' but this has been by far the most divisive.

That said, what kind of horrible god would want a man to have to suffer through more than one wife at a time? One is more than enough...LOL!

1862 - The U.S. Congress authorized a new award, the U.S. Medal of Honor, often called the Congressional Medal of Honor.

The Medal of Honor is the highest honor an American soldier can receive, and one which has been bestowed upon almost 3,400 of America's finest.

Those who would like to read tributes to these heroes can do so by visiting the Medal of Honor website.

1933 - A new U.S. industrial code was established to fix a minimum wage of 40 cents an hour. This was the first national minimum wage law passed by the U. S. Congress.

Exactly what was the logic in creating wage standards in the middle of a depression?

Minimum wages are bad for business, which is bad for employment!! There is little doubt laws like this helped keep the Great Depression going, and hurt many more people than it helped...But it was a nice thought, which is all that matters in the minds of Liberal idiots.

Also, it's believed an estimated 500,000 blacks were put out of work by this act and others passed at the time...But no one cared about that back then.  Nor now, apparently.

1981 - For the first time, a woman in the United States was ordered to pay alimony to her husband.

What’s good for the gander must be good for the goose!

July 7 (A Double)

1520 - Hernando Cortes defeated the Aztecs.

Firearms, horses, smallpox and superstition were enough for Cortes and his band of a few hundred soldiers to overwhelm the greatest power in the New World - establishing Spain as the West's greatest power.

The Aztecs and every other American Indian group made a fatal mistake ignoring the 'First Rule of Invasions':  Don't let the invaders off the beach...As a result, the invaders never left, and more or less wiped out the invaded.
 
1937 - The 'China Incident' began WWII in Asia.

I bet most don't know WWII started with this incident, at the Marco Polo Bridge...Heck, I bet most thought the war started when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

If I'm anywhere near correct on this assumption you desperately need to visit this blog every day.

1456 - Pope Calixtus III annulled the heresy charges brought against Joan of Arc, twenty-five years after her execution.

I'm sure this made Joan feel much better.

Leave it to the French to turn over for execution their national hero.

1647 - Thomas Hooker, Puritan pastor, founder of Connecticut, and organizer of the first American federal government system, died. He is known as the 'Father of American Democracy.'

I didn't know this...Learn something new every day.

1798 - The U.S. Congress rescinded all treaties with France, beginning the Quasi War.

I'm sure many think the French were our 'friends' because they helped us during the Revolutionary War, but this is one of the biggest lies in the entire history of our country.

The French would have gladly conquered the 'British Colonies' themselves, but Napoleon knew he couldn't, so he stuck it to the Brits by helping the Colonists...This is also why France sold the Louisiana Territory to the U.S.

The Quasi War was and undeclared naval war, and involved the young American fleet against French pirates, who were supported by the French Revolution (Napoleon). So, don't fall into the trap of believing the French have always been our 'allies.' If anything, they've always been a bunch of duplicitous pricks. Nothing more, nothing less.

1997 - Three days after landing on Mars, the Pathfinder spacecraft yielded what scientists said was unmistakable photographic evidence that colossal floods scoured the planet's now-barren landscape more than a billion years ago.

Floods = Water, Water = Life...There should be no problem with this on an evolutionary or religious level.

April 25

1859 - Ground was broken for the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean and Red Seas.

The canal was a great project, creating a direct waterway between Europe and Asia...Prior to the Suez Canal, trade between the East and west required sea trips around Africa, or overland transport between the two continents. Both were dangerous, and cost much in the form of money and human lives to get through/around.

Amazingly, this canal-link wasn’t the first in the area. As early as 1900 B.C. the Egyptians linked the Nile with the Red Sea, a canal which was in various states of use (and disuse) until around 700 A.D.

1507 - Martin Waldeseemueller named America in honor of Amerigo Vespucci.

The name 'America' is a thing of beauty, but the New World should have been named Columbia after Christopher Columbus.

1792 - Execution by guillotine was used for the first time, to execute Nicolas J. Pelletier.

The first of many...In a little over a year the guillotine became a favorite tool for the French Revolution's ‘Reign of Terror.'
 
1862 - The Battle of New Orleans ended.  U.S. Admiral David Farragut occupied New Orleans:  U.S. Civil War.

The Civil War was far from over, and at this time the Confederates were routinely whipping the Union troops, but this event more or less was the doom of the Confederacy...New Orleans was the only great port in Southern hands, and it was their lifeline to European and South American supply.  It was also their last hope for European support.

As a result of capturing New Orleans, the Union was able to strangle the South and convince the Brits, French, etc., to mind their own business...As such, the Battle of New Orleans is one of the great turning points of the U.S. Civil War.

1928 - Buddy, a German Shepherd, became the first guide dog for the blind.

This is a minor event for most of us, but an immeasurable one for anyone requiring the services of such dogs.

1904 - New York Yankees pitcher Jack Chesbro won the first of his 41 wins for the year.

This is one of the few sports records which will likely stand for all time...If for no other reason, pitchers don't even get 40 starts per year anymore - even if they were to go undefeated they'd still be short of the record.

For those who are baseball junkies, the all time record for wins in a season by a pitcher is actually 59, by Old Hoss Radbourn in 1884...But this was before the rules and regulations of modern baseball were truly defined - anything before 1900 is considered before the modern era.

1945 - The Soviet Red Army completely surrounded Berlin:  WWII.

The war was all but over, but there were still plenty of lives to be lost.

1945 - U.S. and Soviet forces linked up on the Elbe River, a meeting which dramatized the collapse of Nazi Germany's defenses:  WWII.

A great symbolic event, but in reality it was nothing more than the beginning of the Cold War.

April 18

1942 - An air squadron from the USS Hornet, led by Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle, raided Tokyo and other Japanese cities:  WWII.

'Doolittle’s Raid' had absolutely zero tactical value, but strategically it was very important.

Prior to this raid, the Japanese homeland hadn’t been hit by any of its adversaries and the Japanese people felt invincible...Doolittle proved them wrong, and gave a little taste of what was to come in the next few years.

The raid also did wonders for American morale, which needed a victory of any kind to prove the war was winnable.

1775 - American patriot Paul Revere began his famed ride through the Massachusetts countryside, crying out "The British are coming!" to rally the Minutemen.

The pseudo-war shortly came to an end and the full-blown American Revolution was about to begin...It's also important to know Revere didn't 'ride' alone - he was partnered with William Dawes in his famous ride.

1906 - A devastating earthquake struck San Francisco, followed by raging fires, which killed over 3,000 people. It lasted 48-seconds and registered 8.25 on the Richter Scale, qualifying as America's worst earthquake.

The death total was horrific, and another 250,000 were also left homeless - over 75% of the city was destroyed.

Such is the threat of the San Andreas Fault...The planet will eventually consume us all, but those who live in it’s angriest areas live under the constant threat of the Earth showing its power.

1946 - The League of Nations went out of business. All of its assets were handed over to the United Nations.

One POS fell to the ash-heap of history, only to be succeeded by an even more ridiculous entity.

1955 - Physicist Albert Einstein died.

In the entire history of mankind few have been as brilliant as Einstein...Want to think of a scary thought? Try to imagine the world if Hitler allowed Germany's Jewish scientists - including Einstein - to live in Germany unharmed.  Even worse, try to imagine if he cultivated their genius for his designs before wanting to kill them.

1978 - The U.S. Senate voted 68-32 to turn the Panama Canal over to Panamanian control on Dec. 31, 1999.

This might eventually go down as the biggest blunder in the entire Jimmy Carter Presidency - which says a lot...The fact the Canal is falling more and more under Chinese control should also be a scary prospect to every American.

1985 - Amid controversy over his plans to visit a German military cemetery, President Reagan told news editors in Washington the German soldiers had been "victims of the Nazis just as surely as the victims in the concentration camps."

Reagan probably could have kept this one to himself...There is no doubt what he said is partially true, and he wasn't looking to upset anyone, but it is very difficult to get to this point.

1989 - Thousands of Chinese students demanding democracy tried to storm Communist Party headquarters in Beijing.

China has an awesome history of revolutions, but this small effort stood no chance...We’ll soon see how poorly it ended.