1703 – Tsar Peter the Great founds the city of Saint Petersburg. Then it’s Leningrad. And now it’s Saint Petersburg again. In another five years it’s liable to be Putinopolis.

1919 – Charles Strite patents the pop-up toaster. I still contend that toast from a hot, butter-coated cast iron griddle is superior.

1919 – The US navy NC-4 aircraft arrives in Lisbon after completing the first transatlantic flight. Wasn’t even close to being non-stop, and two sister aircraft, NC-1 and NC-3, didn’t make it.

1927 – The Ford Motor Company ceases manufacture of the Ford Model T and begins to retool plants to make the Ford Model A. Neither of them had BlueTooth.

1935 – New Deal: The Supreme Court of the United States declares the National Industrial Recovery Act to be unconstitutional in A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, (295 U.S. 495).

Speaking to aides of Roosevelt, Justice Louis Brandeis remarked that, “This is the end of this business of centralization, and I want you to go back and tell the president that we’re not going to let this government centralize everything.”

Now, the whole point of the federal government swamp is to centralize everything.

1941 – World War II: The German battleship Bismarck is sunk in the North Atlantic killing almost 2,100 men. There is epic sacrifice and bravery on both sides of the battle.

1995 – In Culpeper, Virginia, actor Christopher Reeve is paralyzed from the neck down after falling from his horse in a riding competition, becoming the Left’s favorite vegetable.

1997 – A springtime tornado outbreak in Jarrell, Texas. 27 dead.