1537 – The Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, and the second most senior, is formed. “Honorable” applied to artillery… Hmphh!!!!

1718 – Hundreds of French colonists arrive in Louisiana; New Orleans, founded. Contrary to misconception, these New Orleans FRENCH are NOT Cajuns. Read histories of early New Orleans and you’ll find that it had problems just like today. French families sent second sons. The colony kept begging for help from the government, just like today.

1829 – President Jackson makes an offer to buy Texas, but Mexican government refuses. Hey! We tried being nice about it first…

1883 – France and Viet Nam sign the Treaty of Hu?, recognizing a French protectorate over Annam and Tonkin. Ain’t nothing that bodes as well for a country’s future as being under the ‘protection’ of the French.

1894 – Shibasaburo Kitasato discovers the infectious agent of the bubonic plague and publishes his findings in The Lancet.

1912 – For the first time an aircraft recovers from a spin. The pilot is headed to the ground and figures he’s a goner anyway, so he shoves the stick forward to hasten the inevitable and hit the ground hard enough to be good and dead. Lo and behold, the stalled wing recovers and a killer is tamed…

1915 – Hurricane kills 275 in Galveston, Texas with $50 million damage. FEMA slow to respond. George Bush blamed. After losing 6000 people in the 1900 hurricane, you’d think these people would learn…

1944 – World War II: Paris is liberated by the Allies. Despite Hitler’s orders, the German Army didn’t burn the place to the ground. In a costly move, cathouses all over the city had to replace the German flags in their parlors. Fortunately, French cathouses keep flags on hand for just about every military power short of the Fijian National Constabulary.

1945 – Ten days after World War II ended with Japan announcing its surrender, armed supporters of the Communist Party of China killed Baptist missionary John Birch, regarded by a portion of the American right as the first victim of the Cold War. In case you hear the name, you know what’s behind it.

1950 – President Harry Truman orders the US Army to seize control of the nation’s railroads to avert a strike. The unions don’t remember when this DIMMOCRAT president called the ARMY out against the unions, but they’re still whining about President Reagan and the air traffic controllers…

1980 – Zimbabwe joins the United Nations. Adding this beacon of freedom and justice makes the room a little bit brighter, adding to the overall stature and effectiveness of the UN.

1991 – Linus Torvalds announces the first version of what will become Linux. I have a few examples of Raspberry Pimicrocomputers running at the house, some of them being the servers for my 3-D printers.

1997 – Egon Krenz, the former East German leader, is convicted of a shoot-to-kill policy at the Berlin Wall. Socialism – so good people will risk death to get away from it.

2017 – Hurricane Harvey makes landfall in Texas as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, the strongest hurricane to make landfall in the United States since 2004. Over the next few days, the storm causes catastrophic flooding throughout much of eastern Texas, killing 106 people and causing $125 billion in damage. I know a bunch of people who lost homes in the floods.