1520 – The Spaniards have to fight their way out of Tenochtitlan. White European interlopers were trying to interfere in the indigenous peoples’ quaint custom of splitting open the chests of living victims and waving the still-beating hearts to heathen gods. I find it curious that “Aztlan” proponents affect the trappings of this same ethos today.

1886 – The first transcontinental train trip across Canada departs from Montreal. It arrives in Port Moody, British Columbia on July 4. People get off the train, look around, and say “Dammit! STILL in Canada!”

1908 – The Tunguska Event occurs in Siberia. We still aren’t sure what it was, but it was definitely an event.

1934 – The Night of the Long Knives, Adolf Hitler’s violent purge of his political rivals in Germany, takes place. People with opposing viewpoints or dangerous information died, just like Vince Foster.

1936 – Emperor Haile Selassie of Abyssinia appeals for aid to the League of Nations against Italy’s invasion of his country. The League of Nations was as useless then as the United Nations is today.

1950 – In what I consider the single most impactful event of the 20th Century, I was born.

1953 – The first Chevrolet Corvette rolls off the assembly line in Flint, Michigan, is bought by a newly-divorced guy with a bad comb-over who badly needs to compensate for something.

1960 – Belgian Congo gains independence as Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville). Freed of the interference of the white European interlopers and fueled by its rich natural resources, tribal harmony is restored and the region becomes a beacon of peace and tranquility known for its fairness and cultural richness. Right?!?!?

1966 – The National Association of Gals (NAG) National Organization for Women (NOW), the United States’ largest feminist organization, is founded.

1971 – Ohio ratifies the 26th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, lowering the voting age to 18, thereby putting the amendment into effect. “Dude, I’m, like, votin’ fer him ‘cuz he’s, like, all cool, ‘cuz I seen him on FaceBook.”

1986 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Bowers v. Hardwick that states can outlaw homosexual acts between consenting adults. The Supreme Court is ALWAYS right, huh?

1990 – East Germany and West Germany merge their economies. As in “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down THIS wall!” Economically speaking, though, it’s a bit like a billionaire marrying a bag lady.

1997 – The United Kingdom transfers sovereignty over Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China. Residents of Hong Kong regret this decision today.

2013 – Protests begin around Egypt against President Mohamed Morsi and the ruling Freedom and Justice Party, leading to their overthrow during the 2013 Egyptian coup d’état. Practically erases Hillary and Barack’s biggest diplomatic move – Arab Spring – in Egypt. That’s okay – they screwed up Libya and Syria bad enough that we’re still seeing the destruction.

1613 – The original Globe Theatre in London burned to the ground after a cannon employed for special effects misfired during a performance of William Shakespeare’s Henry VIII and ignited the theatre’s roof. Sure! Blame the pyro guy. According to one of the few surviving documents of the event, no one was hurt except a man whose burning breeches were put out with a bottle of ale. Yeah, in its day, Shakespeare was “must-see TV”, the entertainment of the masses.

1881 – In Sudan, Muhammad Ahmad declares himself to be the Mahdi, the messianic redeemer of Islam. Causes a bit of heartburn until he’s ‘pacified’ by a newly-formed the British colonial government.

1889 – Hyde Park and several other Illinois townships vote to be annexed by Chicago, forming the largest United States city in area and second largest in population at the time. Under decades of enlightened dimmocrat rule, Chicago is now ‘Chiraq‘, with a few score of shootings and deaths every week.

1922 – France grants 1 km² at Vimy Ridge “freely, and for all time, to the Government of Canada, the free use of the land exempt from all taxes”. Can you imagine how much foreign blood has been spilled in France over that last hundred and twenty years just so they don’t have to speak German? I’m sure Arabic will fit them well.

1945 – Carpathian Ruthenia is annexed by the Soviet Union, which is MUCH better than what Hitler was doing, just arbitrarily snatching up countries and oppressing their occupants.

1956 – The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 is signed, officially creating the United States Interstate Highway System. Many miles of those highways have the sweat of my grandfather, a heavy equipment operator, on them.

1975 – Steve Wozniak tested his first prototype of Apple I computer.

2007 – Apple Inc. releases their first mobile phone, the iPhone. I have an iPhone. I keep buying them. Dunno what model I got now.

2014 – The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant self-declared its caliphate in Syria and northern Iraq and NO country on the planet had the resolve to stop them. Backbone has been rediscovered since then. They meet with success equal to that Mahdi fellow in 1881 when Trump takes office.

1360 – Muhammed VI becomes the tenth Nasrid king of Granada after killing his brother-in-law Ismail II. To this day, this is a common form of regime change in the Muslim world.

1635 – Guadeloupe becomes a French colony. Their motto is “At least we’re not Haiti.”

1894 – Labor Day becomes an official US holiday. Naturally we celebrate “labor” by taking the day off.

1902 – The U.S. Congress passes the Spooner Act, authorizing President Theodore Roosevelt to acquire rights from Colombia for the Panama Canal, enabling Jimmy “I never met a murdering dictator I didn’t like” Carter to give it away later.

1914 – Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria and his wife Sophie are assassinated in Sarajevo by young Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip, the casus belli of World War I.

1919 – The Treaty of Versailles is signed in Paris, formally ending World War I between Belgium, Britain, France, Italy, the United States and allies on the one side and Germany and Austria-Hungary on the other side. The terms of the document, mainly due to French demands, place such an onerous burden on German that the foundations of WW II are laid. Twenty-one years later Hitler “let” France sign the surrender to Germany. In the delicate terms of international diplomacy, this is called “rubbing their noses in it.”

1950 – Seoul is captured by troops from North Korea. North Korean Army conducted Seoul National University Hospital Massacre, murdering 900 including doctors, nurses and patients.

1965 – First US ground combat forces in Vietnam authorized by President Johnson . Ain’t nothing like a dimmocrat president playing with the military…

1987 – For the first time in military history, a civilian population is targeted for chemical attack when Iraqi warplanes bombed the Iranian town of Sardasht. But poor ol’ mistreated Saddam didn’t HAVE any WMD’s, okay…

1556 – The thirteen Stratford Martyrs are burned at the stake near London for their Protestant beliefs. This is what comes after ‘You can’t eat at this restaurant.”

1898 – The first solo circumnavigation of the globe is completed by Joshua Slocum from Briar Island, Nova Scotia, in his 36+ foot converted oyster sloop, Spray, thereby feeding the dreams of sailors and wanna-be sailors ever after…

1905 – (June 14 according to the Julian calendar): Battleship Potemkin uprising: sailors start a mutiny aboard the Battleship Potemkin, denouncing the crimes of autocracy, demanding liberty and an end to war. “an end to war”? You’re serving on a BATTLESHIP. What do you think it’s for? Fishing?

1915 – Temperatures of 100 degrees F (38C) recorded at Fort Yukon, Alaska, a state record. Da*n those SUV’s!

1923 – Capt. Lowell H. Smith and Lt. John P. Richter perform the first ever aerial refueling in a DH-4B biplane.

1941 – Romanian governmental forces, allies of Nazi Germany, launch one of the most violent pogroms in Jewish history in the city of Iasi, (Romania), resulting in the murder of at least 13,266 Jews. Like Obama’s IRS, they didn’t need specific orders. They knew what the boss wanted without him having to tell them.

1950 – The United States decides to send troops to fight in the Korean War. Can’t have commies just arbitrarily running the place, that is until they can fool half the country into electing them…

1957 – Hurricane Audrey kills 500 people in Louisiana and Texas. The number of deaths is an arbitrary figure. I was almost seven. Dad worked the night at the refinery, straight through the storm. Grandma’s house, twenty two miles from the Gulf of Mexico, had six feet of water in the yard. Our next hurricane worthy of the name wouldn’t come until 2005 when Rita showed up. Grandma’s house was still there after that one, too.

1967 – The world’s first ATM is installed in Enfield, London. Second customer waits ten minutes while the first customer, a woman, rifles through her purse looking for her card, then tries to find her PIN written on the back of a scrap of paper.

1980 – Italian Aerolinee Itavia Flight 870 mysteriously explodes in mid air while in route from Bologna to Palermo, killing all 81 on board. Also known in Italy as the Ustica disaster. No official cause of the crash is given although there is somewhat credible evidence that the plane was shot down by the French who mistook it for Moammar Gadaffi’s plane.

1981 – The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issues its “Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party Since the Founding of the People’s Republic of China”, laying the blame for the Cultural Revolution on Mao Zedong. Somewhere between one and twenty million people died. We’ll never know for sure, but what does it matter? You have to break a few eggs to make an omelet.

1985 – U.S. Route 66 ceases to be an official U.S. highway, killed by the Interstate. Traveling the old US Highway routes is a trip into Americana that you miss from the interstates.

1986 – The International Court of Justice finds against the United States in its judgement in Nicaragua v. United States, mainly because the ICJ is an arm of the UN, composed of a majority of people that only WISH their sh*thole nations amounted to a pimple on America’s ass.

2008 – In a highly scrutinized election President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe is re-elected in a landslide after his opponent Morgan Tsvangirai had withdrawn a week earlier, citing violence against his party’s supporters. It hasn’t happened here YET.

1284 – The legendary Pied Piper leads 130 children out of Hamelin, Germany. Michael Jackson says “Wow! I can use music to get me little kids?!?!”

1794 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Fleurus marked the first successful military use of aircraft. “Aircraft’ is a stretch, it’s a balloon, lift coming from hot air, something the French have produced in abundance for the last few centuries.

1843 – Treaty of Nanking comes into effect, Hong Kong Island is ceded to the British “in perpetuity”. Or until the Brits decide to sell Hong Kong out to the Red Chinese…

1848 – End of the June Days Uprising in Paris. The government tries to shut down make-work welfare programs and rioting ensues. 10,000 are killed or injured, 4,000 deported to Algeria, guaranteeing that Algeria will be a mess for the next couple of centuries, at least. Rioting over the end of welfare? Wait for it.

1886 – Henri Moissan isolated elemental Fluorine for the first time. Compared to fluorine, my old friend chlorine is mother’s milk!

1917 – The first U.S. troops arrive in France to fight alongside Britain, France, Italy, and Russia against Germany, and Austria-Hungary in World War I. British and French generals start drooling over fresh meat. General Pershing says “no way! We see how you take care of your men…” After receiving a lesson on battlefield tactics by a British officer, one American officer thanked him, and then told his American troops, “We appreciate the gentleman’s information, but remember, THEY’VE been using these tactics for four years and it hasn’t done ‘em much good.”

1918 – World War I, Western Front: Battle for Belleau Wood – Allied Forces under John J. Pershing and James Harbord defeat Imperial German Forces under Wilhelm, German Crown Prince. Marines come off with the nickname “Devil Dogs” and my old Second Infantry Division (Yes, infantry divisions have tanks) gets a battle streamer.

1942 – The first flight of the Grumman F6F Hellcat. It is the platform that shot down the most enemy aircraft in the war.

1944 – World War II: The Battle of Osuchy in Osuchy, Poland, one of the largest battles between Nazi Germany and Polish resistance forces, ends with the defeat of the latter. The Soviets nearby offered no help as the Germans killed off the types of Poles that might have opposed the oncoming Communist era in Eastern Europe.

1945 – The United Nations Charter is signed in San Francisco. Hmmmm! UN starts in San Francisco. That explains a lot…

1948 – William Shockley filed the original patent for the grown junction transistor, the first bipolar junction transistor.

Late in his life, Shockley became intensely interested in questions of race, human intelligence, and eugenics. He thought this work was important to the genetic future of the human species and he came to describe it as the most important work of his career, even though expressing his views damaged his reputation. Shockley argued that a higher rate of reproduction among the less intelligent was having a dysgenic effect, and that a drop in average intelligence would ultimately lead to a decline in civilization.

1953 – Lavrentiy Beria, head of MVD, is arrested by Nikita Khrushchev and other members of the Politburo. he had a tiger, Stalin, by the tail, and when HIS tiger died, other tigers were ready to devour him.

1960 – British Somaliland (now Somalia) gains independence from Britain. Once rid of the yoke of the white European colonialist interlopers, the nation goes on to become a bastion of peace and plenty. It didn’t? Oh, come on! Wait! I know, let’s import a several thousand into Minnesota and let them show us how to do it here!

1963 – John F. Kennedy speaks the famous words “Ich bin ein Berliner” on a visit to West Berlin. In vernacular German, this translates to “I am a doughnut.” Germans cheer wildly because they’re looking at the guy who’s boinking Marilyn Monroe. Obama would’ve gave Berlin to the Soviets and played a round of golf…

1974 – The Universal Product Code (bar code) is scanned for the first time to sell a package of Wrigley’s chewing gum at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio.

1993 – The U.S. launches a missile attack targeting Baghdad intelligence headquarters in retaliation for a thwarted assassination attempt against former President George H.W. Bush in April in Kuwait. This wasn’t part of Clinton’s “Missiles for Monica” program. That came later.

1995 – Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani deposes his father Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar, in a bloodless coup d’état. There’s only ONE true democracy in the Middle East, and it’s Jewish.

2003 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Lawrence v. Texas that gender-based sodomy laws are unconstitutional. Now it’s just about to be made mandatory.