1759 – Battle of the Plains of Abraham: British defeat French near Quebec City in the Seven Years’ War, known by us in the United States as the French and Indian War. This insures that we have an English-speaking neighbor to the north of us. That’s a good thing.

1791 – King Louis XVI of France accepts the new constitution. A year and a half later the “citizens” lop off his head. So much for bipartisanship…

1814 – The British fail to capture Baltimore, Maryland. Turning point in the War of 1812. American defensive efforts inspire Francis Scott Key to write The Star-Spangled Banner. From the fourth stanza:

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust.’

You don’t hear the whole thing very often because it would tend to foment rebellious urges when you see what the Left wants our country to become.

1847 – Mexican-American War: Six teenage military cadets known as Niños Héroes die defending Chapultepec Castle in the Battle of Chapultepec. American General Winfield Scott captures Mexico City in the Mexican-American War. That would be that “From the Halls of Montezuma” thing.

1899 – Henry Bliss is the first person in the United States to be killed in an automobile accident. Four lawyers are injured in the rush to present their business cards to the survivors.

1922 – The temperature (in the shade) at Al ‘Aziziyah, Libya reaches a world record 57.7°C (135.9°F). But it’s a DRY heat…

1956 – IBM introduces the first computer disk storage unit, the RAMAC 305. the size of a couple of full-size refrigerators, it has five (5) megabytes of storage because IBM execs said they didn’t know how to sell more than 5 MB.

1971 – People’s Republic of China: Chairman Mao Zedong’s second in command and successor Marshal Lin Biao flees the country via plane after the failure of alleged coup against Mao. The plane crashes in Mongolia, killing all aboard. If I was Mitt Romney, I’d worry…

1988 – Gilbert is strongest (26.13 barometer) hurricane in Western Hemisphere. When this storm was in the Gulf, it caused us a lot of concern. Fortunately for us it went ‘way south of the US.Gilbert’s #1 is replaced by Hurricane Wilma in 2005 (based on barometric pressure).

2008 – Hurricane Ike makes landfall on the Texas Gulf Coast of the United States, causing heavy damage to Galveston Island, Houston and surrounding areas. Eighty-five mile an hour winds here, and a higher storm surge than Hurricane Rita three years before.