1793 – French Revolutionary Wars: France declares war on the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

1861 – American Civil War: Texas secedes from the United States. Time for a replay.

1865 – President Abraham Lincoln signs the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. This frees slaves in states not affected by the Emancipation Proclamation, which only affected the Confederate states.

1898 – First auto insurance policy in US issued by Travelers Insurance Co.

1942 – World War II: Vidkun Quisling is appointed Premier of Norway by the Nazi occupiers. “Quisling” becomes synonymous with “collaborator” and “sell-out” for a generation, much as we will use the name “Obama” for failure, as in “He really obama’d that job.”

1946 – Trygve Lie of Norway is picked to be the first United Nations Secretary General. So it’s true that the UN begins with a Lie, and nothing underscore the UN’s leadership’ like being led by a guy who couldn’t live in his OWN country for five years while it was occupied by the Nazis. On the ‘up’ side, at least he wasn’t French.

1957 – Felix Wankel’s first working prototype DKM 54 of the Wankel engine runs at the NSU research and development department Versuchsabteilung TX in Germany. This is about the time that American auto makers are perfecting the tailfin.

1958 – Egypt and Syria merge to form the United Arab Republic, which lasts until 1961. If they didn’t have Israel to hate, they’d be perfectly happy hating each other.

1968 – Vietnam War: The execution of Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lém by South Vietnamese National Police Chief Nguyen Ngoc Loan is recorded on motion picture film, as well as in an iconic still photograph taken by Eddie Adams of the creation of a “good commie”.


1972 – First scientific hand-held calculator (HP-35) introduced. $395 would buy one, the equivalent of almost $2300 today. My iPhone does everything that the HP-35 did and a lots more and costs half of that.

1978 – Director Roman Polanski skips bail and flees the United States to France after pleading guilty to charges of engaging in sex with a 13-year-old girl. This is apparently acceptable behavior in France and Hollywood if you’re important enough.

1979 – The Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Tehran, Iran after nearly 15 years of exile. Freed of the American-supported Shah, Iran becomes a beacon of reason and fairness in the region. Right?!?

2003 – Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates during reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard. I was motoring up the Intracoastal Canal in my old sailboat that day.

2004 – Hajj pilgrimage stampede: In a stampede at the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, 251 people are trampled to death and 244 injured. When rules laid down by a seventh century whacko meet 21st Century crowds.