627 AD – Battle of the Trench: Muhammad undergoes a 14-day siege at Medina (Saudi Arabia) by Meccan forces under Abu Sufyan. After his opposition breaks apart , Muhammad chases down the losers, gathers all the men, 700-900 of them, and beheads them, just like today. Women and children are taken into slavery, just like today.

1774 – American Revolutionary War: The Kingdom of Great Britain orders the port of Boston, Massachusetts closed in the Boston Port Act. That whole “Tea Party” thing really upset them. The original Tea Party folks didn’t dump their own tea in the harbor… We’re just not mad enough YET! Boil, froggy, boil!

1854 – Commodore Matthew Perry signs the Treaty of Kanagawa with the Japanese government, opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade. Nothing like armed naval vessels showing up on your doorstep with superior firepower to get the ol’ diplomacy going. Of course, those fops in the State Department haven’t learned that lesson.

1889 – The Eiffel Tower is inaugurated. Built to commemorate the French national bloodbath Revolution, it is very French in that it is eminently elegant and does absolutely nothing except give the Germans something photogenic to march under…

1906 – The Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (later National Collegiate Athletic Association – NCAA) is established to set rules for amateur sports in the United States. Yeah. They’re amateurs like I’m Prince Consort to the Tsarina Katherine of All the Russias.

1918 – Daylight saving time goes into effect in the United States for the first time, equivalent to making a blanket longer by cutting off a piece at the foot and sewing it to the head end.

1933 – The Civilian Conservation Corps is established with the mission to relieve rampant unemployment. Federal dollars paid men to work. Families got money. The country got completed work. It wouldn’t work today because back then, people actually wanted to work. Today it’d just upset the dimmocrats’ biggest voting bloc. it’s easier to just pay ‘em to stay home except on election day.

1951 – Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer. The buyer is the United States Census Bureau. Let’s see – 5,200 vacuum tubes, 14.5 tons, 125 kW power consumption, $159,000 dollars, which in today’s dollars is $1,450,024.96. My iPhone beats in in so many ways it’s unbelievable.

1966 – The Soviet Union launches Luna 10 which later becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon. Go ahead, Boris! Who put FOOTPRINTS on the moon?

1992 – An era ends as the USS Missouri (BB-63), the last active United States Navy battleship, is decommissioned in Long Beach, California.