312 AD – Constantine the Great is said to have received his famous Vision of the Cross. This moves him to declare the entire Roman Empire to be Christian. Nothing like a politician using religion to further his goals.

1806 – The French Army enters in Berlin. This pi**es off the Germans. The Germans say “Oh, that’s how you wanna play” and they return the favor several times in the next century and a half. Like in 1870, when Marshal François Achille Bazaine surrenders to Prussian forces at Metz along with 140,000 French soldiers in one of the biggest French defeats of the Franco-Prussian War.

1810 – United States annexes the former Spanish colony of West Florida. It ends up as part of three states, Alabama, Mississippi and the “Florida Parishes” of Louisiana.

1964 – Ronald Reagan delivers a speech on behalf of Republican candidate for president, Barry Goldwater. The speech launched his political career and came to be known as “A Time for Choosing”.

1971 – Democratic Republic of the Congo is renamed Zaire. “Yeah, we’re a basket case of corruption but if we change the name it’ll confuse people for a while and we can get MORE money…”