1890 – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints officially renounces polygamy. That’s okay. Wait until it comes back under sharia. It’s okay if Muslims do it because Mormons aren’t sending out suicide bombers.

1906 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt proclaims Devils Tower the nation’s first National Monument. He wasn’t qualified to be president, you know, having been selected for VP after less than two years as a state governor.

1929 – Lieutenant James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle guides a Consolidated N-Y-2 biplane over Mitchell Field in New York in the first all-instrument flight. If you’ve never done it, it’s quite an experience. Your body tells you things that just aren’t so. It takes training to get over that little fact, and to build an image of three-dimensional activity from the indications of your instruments.

1948 – The Honda Motor Company is founded, goes on to make those crummy Jap cars that nobody will ever buy. American car makers didn’t crap their collective pants, but they should have… Of course, Honda started out selling silly little motorcycles. American and British bike manufacturers laughed, too…

1960 – USS Enterprise, first nuclear power aircraft carrier, launches.

1979 – CompuServe began operation as first computer information service. I had a CompuServe account in 1985. Anybody out there beat that?

1990 – East Germany leaves Warsaw Pact. After 45 years as a Soviet puppet…

2005 – Hurricane Rita makes landfall in the United States, devastating southeast Texas and southwestern Louisiana. The media is too focused on the perpetually peeved and professional beggar class in New Orleans to pay much attention to people who got up out of the wreckage and debris and went back to work.