49 BC – Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon, signaling the start of civil war. Sometimes you just have to take a step from which you can’t turn back.

1776 – Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense. The government’s supply has since ran out. The last bit was used up in the 1980’s. Today “common sense” is an uncommon commodity. Speaking or writing it is almost considered hate speech.

1810 – The marriage of Napoleon and Josephine is annulled. The Vatican remembered the lesson of Henry VIII and didn’t kick this time.

1901 – The first great Texas oil gusher is discovered at Spindletop in Beaumont, Texas. Made “Texas” synonymous with “oil bidness”. The well wasn’t even 1200 feet deep and the area had been known for sulfur springs and natural gas seeping out of the ground. I’ve driven by the place many times.

1920 – The League of Nations holds its first meeting, and ratifies the Treaty of Versailles, therefore ending World War I and guaranteeing WW II in nineteen years.

1941 – The Soviets and Germany agree on the East European borders and the exchange of industrial equipment and between the two of them they absolutely RAPE Poland. Both sides decide to kill off Polish officers, intelligentsia, and Jews.

1946 – The United States Army Signal Corps successfully conducts Project Diana, bouncing radio waves off the moon and receiving the reflected signals. This is the first recorded human interaction with an extra-terrestrial body and arguably the beginning of the space program.

1946 – The first General Assembly of the United Nations opens in London. Fifty-one nations are represented. today they’re in New York and what you see there makes the cantina scene in the original Star Wars look positively tame.

1949 – RCA introduces the 45 RPM record, the mainstay of bobby-soxers and juke boxes for the next four decades.

1962 – Apollo Project: NASA announces plans to build the C-5 rocket booster. It became better known as the Saturn V moon rocket, which launched every Apollo moon mission. That’s pretty heady stuff when you realize that it’s been less than four years since we put our first satellite in orbit.

1996 – Israel frees hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. The Palestinians recognize Israel’s sincere efforts for peace and drop their arms, ushering in a new era of cooperation, freedom and prosperity. Right??!? What? No???

1997 – Dow Corning provides $295 billion to settle breast implant suits. Through the efforts of trial lawyers misleading stupid juries, junk science wins and businesses lose big.

1799 – British Prime Minister William Pitt introduces income tax to raise funds for the war against Napoleon. Of course our own politicians took the idea to ever new heights…

1861 – American Civil War: The “Star of the West” incident occurs near Charleston, South Carolina as Southern positions fire on a ship attempting to resupply Fort Sumpter. It is considered by some historians to be the “First Shots of the American Civil War”.

1894 – New England Telephone and Telegraph installs the first battery-operated telephone switchboard in Lexington, Massachusetts. I’ve actually operated a manual switchboard. The Army was still using them in the eighties, probably still is. “Bzzzzzzz…. Panther Switch!”

1912 – US Marines invade Honduras. Oddly enough, Tegucigalpa does not join Tripoli and Montezuma in the immortality of the Marine Hymn.

1923 – Juan de la Cierva makes the first autogyro flight. Kinda looks LIKE a helicopter. Isn’t, though.

1936 – The M1 Garand (United States Rifle, Caliber .30, M1) is standardized for adoption by the United States. It is the first semi-automatic rifle adopted for general issue by any nation. General George S. Patton called it “the greatest implement of battle ever devised.” I own one. A man with this rifle is NOT ill-equipped.

1947 – With de Gaulle’s stunning single-handed defeat of Nazi Germany fresh in his mind, French General Leclerc breaks off all talks with Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh. A few years later Ho Chi Minh breaks it off in the French…

1951 – The United Nations headquarters officially opens in New York City. This pustule on the butt of humanity is still there… So it the UN Headquarters…

1968 – The only known snowfall in Mexico City occurs; additional snow falls on January 10 and 11. We need more SUV’s.

2007 – Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveils the first iPhone.

1811 – An unsuccessful slave revolt was led by Charles Deslandes in St. Charles and St. James, Louisiana. This was the largest slave revolt in the US in terms of slaves involved. Today all you have to do is keep the welfare flowing and they’ll vote to enslave themselves.

1815 – War of 1812: Battle of New Orleans – Andrew Jackson leads American forces in victory over the British. The war’s been over for a couple of weeks but the news travels slow in 1815. It’s a good thing Andy Jackson and Jean Lafitte showed up, or New Orleans’d be the Louisiana equivalent of Hong Kong. (The link is Johnny Horton’s song about the event)

1835 – The United States national debt is $0 for the only time. We’re looking at TRILLIONS now, multiples of the budget…

1856 – Dr. John A. Veatch discovers borax at Tuscan Springs, California. Wagons pulled by teams of twenty mules each give rise to the brand “Twenty Mule Team Borax.”

1870 – US mint at Carson City, Nevada begins issuing coins with the distinctive “CC” mint mark.

1889 – Herman Hollerith is issued US patent #395,791 for the ‘Art of Applying Statistics’ — his punched card calculator. Us ‘seasoned citizens’ remember punch cards. An extra hole or two from a hand-held clandestine punch could gum things up… “Keypunch operator” was one of the careers for which one could train in the late ’70?s when I was getting out of the army.

1964 – President Lyndon B. “Lyin’ Ba*tard” Johnson declares a “War on Poverty” in the United States. It appears, 50 years later, that “poverty” may well be winning.

2002 – President George W. Bush signs into law the No Child Left Behind Act. This translates as the “Make Every Child Mediocre” act. We NEED the kids who can lead the pack.

1782 – The first American commercial bank, the Bank of North America, opens, immediately applies for federal bailout money.

1904 – The distress signal “CQD” is established only to be replaced two years later by “SOS”. “Dadidadit daddahdidah dahdidit” is not as distinctive in punching through poor radio signals as “dididit dahdahdah dididit”. SOS is a lot easier for the non-radio person to remember, too.

1913 – William M Burton patents a process to “crack” petroleum. increasing the amount of more useful and valuable products to be extracted from crude oil.

1927 – First transatlantic telephone call – New York City to London. And they get a busy signal…

1935 – Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval sign the Franco–Italian Agreement. This is the historical equivalent of the fish GETTING the bicycle…

1942 – World War II: The siege of the Bataan Peninsula begins.

“We’re the battlin’ bastards of Bataan. No momma, no daddy, no Uncle Sam…”

And when they surrender, they’re subjected to atrocity of historical proportions, The Bataan Death March.

1944 – Air Force announces production of first US jet fighter, the Bell P-59, not quite an abysmal failure, but not exactly one of the high points of American aviation technology.

1945 – German propagandist Lord Haw-Haw reports total German victory at the Battle of the Ardennes. He sets the standards for truth and accuracy in war reporting later upheld by Baghdad Bob of the Iraqi foreign ministry and Harry Reid of the US Senate. Today he’d be on the staff of CNN or PBS.

1945 – World War II: British General Bernard Montgomery holds a press conference in which he claims credit for victory in the Battle of the Bulge. Yeah, right! And Charles DeGaulle freed France, too…

1953 – President Harry Truman announces that the United States has developed the hydrogen bomb. Fresh trousers are in sudden demand in the Kremlin. In 1960, they order another load when the first Polaris missile is tested.

1986 – US president Reagan proclaims economic sanctions against Libya. Program includes using US Navy jets to give Libyan fighter pilots a chance to go swimming.

1991 – Beginning of Operation Desert Storm, during the Gulf War.

2015 – Two gunmen commit a mass shooting at the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris, killing twelve people and injuring another eleven. Anybody want to venture a guess as to the religious affiliation of the killers?

1494 – The first Mass in the New World is celebrated at La Isabela, Hispaniola. Nasty ol’ oppressors went on to eradicate the peaceful religions of the Native Americans that involved quaint customs like human sacrifice.

1893 – The Washington National Cathedral is chartered by Congress. The charter is signed by President Benjamin Harrison. 2015 – Barack HUSSEIN Obama confirms his Muslim beliefs and issues an Executive Order making this the National Mosque. Gains 100% of the American Muslim voting bloc.

1974 – In response to the 1973 energy crisis, daylight saving time commences nearly four months early in the United States. And I can cut a foot off the foot of my bed and add it to the head and it gets LONGER!

1975 – “Wheel Of Fortune,” (AKA “Jeopardy for Dumba**es” ) debuts on NBC-tv

1994 – Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed on the knee at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Detroit, Michigan. In an unrelated incident, two competing male figure skaters get into a big slap-fight over mascara.

2001 – In one of the closest Presidential elections in U.S. history, George W. Bush was finally declared the winner of the bitterly contested 2000 Presidential elections more then five weeks after the election due to the disputed Florida ballots. The Left whines for years. The Left whines about THIS for years. Actually the Left adds it to a long list of perpetual whines.