37 AD – Roman Emperor Caligula accepts the titles of the Principate, entitled to him by the Senate.

193 AD – Roman Emperor Pertinax is assassinated by Praetorian Guards, who then sell the throne in an auction.

845 AD – Paris is sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collects a huge ransom in exchange for leaving. In 1944, the US and its allies paid the price to get the Germans out so that prancing fop deGaulle could waltz in after the Americans, Brits and Canadians had cleared the way for him.

1842 – First concert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, founded by Otto Nicolai.

1871 – The Paris Commune is formally established in Paris. In the aftermath of ANY national disaster, you can depend on the communists to try to take over. the commune ends when the French Army intervenes. As is usually the case since Napoleon (who wasn’t French, he was Corsican), the French Army is most victorious against the French.

1933 – German Reichstag confers dictatorial powers on Hitler. History. Learn from it.

1946 – Cold War: The United States Department of State releases the Acheson–Lilienthal Report, outlining a plan for the international control of nuclear power. When action to ‘control’ is limited to harshly worded letters, you end up with North Korea with The Bomb.

1979 – In Pennsylvania, a pump in the reactor cooling system fails in the Three Mile Island accident, resulting in the crapping of many pairs of pants. Zero, that’s ZERO!, deaths.

1994 – In South Africa, Zulus and African National Congress supporters battle in central Johannesburg, resulting in 18 deaths. You’ll see more of this as South Africa follows Zimbabwe’s path. In Africa, despite what We want to think, tribe trumps ‘nation’ at any time. The ‘nations’ were laid out by the colonial powers and are only couple hundred years old. Tribes go back much further.