1718 – The city of New Orleans is founded by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville. We’re sorry… But that wasn’t Cajuns. At this point in history we were happily ensconced in what is now Nova Scotia. The people who settled New Orleans were the worst sort of FRENCH.
1824 – World premiere of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in Vienna, Austria. The performance is conducted by Michael Umlauf under the deaf composer’s supervision. One of my personal favorite bits of music.
1864 – American Civil War: The Army of the Potomac, under General Ulysses S. Grant, breaks off from the Battle of the Wilderness and moves southwards. Total losses: USA-17,666; CSA-7,500. The Union can afford to lose that manpower and materiel. The South can’t.
1915 – World War I: German submarine U-20 sinks RMS Lusitania, killing 1,198 people including 128 Americans. Public reaction to the sinking turns many formerly pro-Germans in the United States against the German Empire.
1920 – Treaty of Moscow (1920): Soviet Russia recognizes independence of the Democratic Republic of Georgia only to invade the country six months later. Does any of this sound vaguely familiar?
1945 – World War II: General Alfred Jodl signs unconditional surrender terms at Reims, France, ending Germany’s participation in the war. The document takes effect the next day.
1946 – Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded with around 20 employees.
1954 – Indochina War: The Battle of Dien Bien Phu ends in a French defeat (the battle began on March 13). In the last century, how many American lives have been lost following a “French defeat”?
1998 – Mercedes-Benz buys Chrysler for $40 billion and forms DaimlerChrysler in the largest industrial merger in history. Ten years later Chrysler has “teh sux” so bad they’re selling out to FIAT (Fix It Again Tony).