1620 – The Mayflower starts her voyage to North America. Somebody didn’t think this through. Means they get to America in November, which wouldn’t have been too bad if they’d’ve ended up in Virginia as they’d planned. They didn’t.

1776 – American Revolutionary War: the Battle of Harlem Heights is fought. Like ‘ghetto’, ‘Harlem’ is a word that has been commandeered and given a new, perverted meaning. Few who fling it about at every opportunity know its origins.

1812 – Russians set fire to Moscow shortly after midnight – the city is burned completely down days later. Hey! It was full of Frenchmen. What else you gonna do? It’s like having to burn your bedding as a sure way to get rid of bedbugs.

1908 – General Motors is founded. Wow! They lasted a hundred years before becoming “Government Motors”.

1915 – US takes control of customs & finances of Haiti for 10 years. That’s like, what, a pickle jar full of loose change, on a good day?

1928 – The Okeechobee hurricane strikes southeastern Florida, killing upwards of 2,500 people. It is the third deadliest natural disaster in United States history, behind the Galveston hurricane of 1900 and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. FEMA slow to respond. Bush widely blamed.

1959 – The first successful dry process photocopier, the Xerox 914, is introduced in a demonstration on live television from New York City. Weighed 648 pounds and could make a single copy in ONLY twenty-six seconds and cost $27,500. I remember when operating a copier was a positive thing to include on a resume’.

1975 – Papua New Guinea gains its independence from Australia. They produce particularly fine coffee, some of my favorites.

1979 – Eight people escaped from East Germany to the west in a homemade hot air balloon. If America goes socialist, where do WE escape to?

2007 – Mercenaries working for Blackwater Worldwide allegedly shoot and kill 17 Iraqis in Nisour Square, Baghdad; all criminal charges against them are later dismissed, sparking outrage in the Arab world. Of course, I have trouble imagining ANYTHING that doesn’t ‘spark outrage in the Arab world.’

2013 – A gunman deranged nutcase kills twelve people at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., a venue that disarms its people for their ‘safety’.