1669 – Citing poor eyesight, Samuel Pepys records the last event in his diary.

1678 – The Godiva procession through Coventry begins. Now there’s a tax protest.

1795 – French Revolution: The Revolutionary Tribunal is suppressed. It’s been motive to 42,000 executions as France achieves Liberte’, egalite, fraternite’.

1884 – Dr. John Harvey Kellogg patents “flaked cereal”

1889 – Johnstown Flood: Over 2,200 people die after a dam break sends a 60-foot (18-meter) wall of water over the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. FEMA slow to respond. Bush widely blamed.

1909 – The National Negro Committee, forerunner to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), convenes for the first time. There’s money to be made in racism, and they’ll keep it going as long as they can.

1911 – R.M.S. Titanic’s hull is launched. This will end well.

1916 – World War I: Battle of Jutland – The British Grand Fleet under the command of Sir John Jellicoe &Sir David Beatty engage the Kaiserliche Marine under the command of Reinhard Scheer & Franz von Hipper in the largest naval battle of the war, which proves indecisive.

1927 – The last Ford Model T rolls off the assembly line after a production run of 15,007,003 vehicles. The VW Beetle (Type 111)finally beat that production number, topping out at 21,529,464. 15,444,858 of them were built in Germany.

1961 – The South African Constitution of 1961 becomes effective. In another ten years they’ll have to hire an outside consultant to read the next one to them.

1971 – In accordance with the Uniform Monday Holiday Act passed by the U.S. Congress in 1968, observation of Memorial Day occurs on the last Monday in May for the first time, rather than on the traditional Memorial Day of May 30. That’s just fine. Most people have no idea of the original significance of the holiday anyway. “Happy Memorial Day”, indeed!