1581 – Francis Drake is knighted by Elizabeth I for a circumnavigation of the world. Took him three years. It cost him five ships and a couple of hundred men, but the cargo he brought back was of greater value than the entire OTHER revenue of England that year.

1818 – The United States Congress adopts the flag of the United States with 13 red and white stripes and one star for each state (then 20). Adding a stripe for each state didn’t work.

1859 – Bryant’s Minstrels debut “Dixie” in New York City in the finale of a blackface minstrel show.

It’s politically incorrect now. You may never hear it performed in public again.



1922 – WAAB (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) becomes first US radio station with “W” calls.

1933 – USS Akron (ZRS-4) wrecked off the New Jersey coast due to severe weather, precipitating the demise of combat Zeppelins.

1949 – Twelve nations sign the North Atlantic Treaty creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). Today it exists only so that Europe can rattle their decorative sabers and call US for a real military. Except the French, who do quite well against African tribes and boats full of hairy hippies.

1968 – Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated by James Earl Ray at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Riots break out in many cities.

1972 – First electric power plant fueled by garbage begins operating. Tree-huggers swoon.

1973 – The World Trade Center in New York is officially dedicated.

1975 – Microsoft is founded as a partnership between Bill Gates and Paul Allen, both of them college dropouts.

1994 – Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark found Netscape Communications Corporation under the name “Mosaic Communications Corporation”. Somehow they’ve morphed into Mozilla.