1586 – Sir Walter Raleigh brings first tobacco to England from Virginia.
1794 – French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre is arrested after encouraging the execution of more than 17,000 “enemies of the Revolution.” Guess who’s got the next ride on “Mr. Guillotine”. Way to go there, Pierre!
1816 – Seminole Wars – Battle of Negro Fort: The battle ends when a hot shot cannonball fired by US Navy Gunboat No. 154 explodes the Fort’s powder magazine, killing approximately 275. It is considered the deadliest single cannon shot in US history.
1866 – The Atlantic Cable is successfully completed, allowing transatlantic telegraph communication for the first time. The first cable, in 1858, only lasts a couple of months before failing, but it cut communication from Europe to North America from a couple of weeks to seconds. We in the electrical biz know all about the heartbreak of a premature cable failure. This one works better. You could ask a question and get an answer the same day!
1940 – The animated short A Wild Hare is released, introducing the character of Bugs Bunny. Mickey Mouse is a wimp!
1941 – Japanese troops occupy French Indo-China. What were the French gonna do? They’d ALREADY surrendered to Germany.
1944 – First British jet fighter used in combat (Gloster Meteor). It isn’t allowed over German-held territory because of secrecy. Of course, the Germans had beat the Brits into jet combat with the Me-262 already and theirs was technologically much more advanced.
1945 – US Communist Party forms. With today’s dimmocrat party, they are rendered superfluous.
1949 – Initial flight of the de Havilland Comet, the first jet-powered airliner. Some inattention to minor engineering details causes them to fall out of the sky in alarming fashion. By the time they’re fixed, Boeing’s 707 and Douglas’ DC-8 were ready to roll out and they took the market over..
1953 – Korean War ends: The United States, People’s Republic of China, and North Korea, sign an armistice agreement. Syngman Rhee, president of South Korea, refuses to sign but pledges to observe the armistice. To this day, that’s all we have with North Korea: an armistice. Like they honor any written agreement anyway… I spent a year on that DMZ and just south of it myself: 1969-70
1964 – Vietnam War: 5,000 more American military advisers are sent to South Vietnam bringing the total number of United States forces in Vietnam to 21,000. Curse those war-mongering Republican presidents. Wait! What? That was Lyndon Baines “Lyin’ my ass off!” Johnson, a DIMMOCRAT?!?!?! Ain’t nothing like a dimmocrat getting all feisty.
1974 – Watergate scandal: The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee votes 27 to 11 to recommend the first article of impeachment (for obstruction of justice) against President Richard Nixon. Compared to Hillary Clinton, Nixon was a petty shoplifter, but today’s ‘majority’ nutless wonders in Congress can’t bear to officially sanction her. Tell me how the game’s not rigged.
1816: Can you imagine the guts needed to fire red-hot cannonballs from a wooden ship?
Remember, the wood wasn’t the most flammable part. All the ropes were waterproofed with tar, and the seams between the planks were stuffed with worn-out rope fiber and tar. And there would be open powder kegs around to charge the cannon before they brought in the hot shot from the furnace. In a stone or brick fort, a misstep might blow one cannon crew to kingdom come; in a ship, just dropping the ball on the deck would have everything ablaze in a few minutes.