1517 – First burning of Protestants at stake in Netherlands. Over religion. You’d have thought they denied global warming or something serious. Now, in many Muslim countries, it doesn’t matter if it’s Protestant or Catholic or what, just as long as it’s Christian, and they’re not picky about methods, either. And to see what’s being pushed in the media here, It might not be long for here, either.

1520 – La Noche Triste: Joint Mexican Indian force led by Aztecs under Cuitláhuac defeat Spanish Conquistadors under Hernán Cortés. “We have a right to enslave our enemies and cut out their living hearts. It’s a cultural diversity thing.”

1837 – A system of civil registration of births, marriages and deaths is established in England and Wales. Before that, you didn’t need a marriage license.

1847 – First US postage stamps go on sale, 5-cent Franklin & 10-cent Washington, in New York City.

1863 – American Civil War: The Battle of Gettysburg begins.

1863 – Free city delivery of mail begins in 49 US cities; postage 3 cents for first ounce.

1867 – The British North America Act of 1867 takes effect as the Constitution of Canada, creating the Canadian Confederation and the federal dominion of Canada; Sir John A. Macdonald is sworn in as the first Prime Minister of Canada. This date is commemorated annually in Canada as Canada Day, a national holiday.

1874 – The Sholes and Glidden typewriter, the first commercially successful typewriter, goes on sale. It has a QWERTY keyboard, a letter placement designed to allow the most commonly used letters time to get out of the way of each other in a mechanical apparatus.

1885 – The Congo Free State is established by King Léopold II of Belgium. Belgium. Germany. France. Three countries you DIDN’T want to be colonized by.

1898 – Spanish-American War: The Battle of San Juan Hill is fought in Santiago de Cuba. American combat troops were led into battle by a future president.

1903 – Start of first Tour de France bicycle race. Here’s a rare color photo of the 1940 race:

1908 – SOS is adopted as the international distress signal. That’s “dididit dahdahdah dididit” in Morse.

1915 – Leutnant Kurt Wintgens of the then-named German Deutsches Heer’s Fliegertruppe army air service achieves the first known aerial victory with a synchronized machine-gun armed fighter plane, the Fokker M.5K/MG Eindecker. Eighty horsepower. Eighty miles an hour. One 8mm machinegun.

1916 – World War I: First day on the Somme – On the first day of the Battle of the Somme 19,000 soldiers of the British Army are killed and 40,000 wounded. By the end of the year over a million men on both sides will be dead or wounded.

1919 – First class postage drops from 3 cents to 2 cents. What?!?!? They REDUCED the cost of postage?!?!?

1923 – The Canadian Parliament suspends all Chinese immigration. today their immigration policy seems intent on creating a Somalia with icicles.

1960 – Independence of Somalia. Once the thumb of the colonial oppressors, the people of Somalia choose their own rule, leading them to become the synonym for liberty and enlightenment in Africa.

1962 – Independence of Rwanda. Once freed of the stifling control of the white European interlopers, Rwanda enters a new era of peace and harmony, right???

1963 – ZIP Codes are introduced for United States mail.

1968 – The Nuclear non-proliferation treaty is signed in Washington, D.C., London and Moscow by sixty-two countries. It’s a piece of paper, ignored by countries who know that the UN is worse than toothless in enforcement.

1979 – Sony introduces the Walkman. Music becomes popularly portable.

1991 – The Warsaw Pact is officially dissolved at a meeting in Prague, marking the failure of centralized socialist government, but then the wrong people were in charge.