1778 – American Revolutionary War: In Paris the Treaty of Alliance and the Treaty of Amity and Commerce are signed by the United States and France signaling official recognition of the new republic. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”, and we’ll be fighting the French Navy before the end of the century.

1820 – The first 86 African American immigrants sponsored by the American Colonization Society started a settlement in present-day Liberia. Liberia is a Third-World hellhole today. Even worse than New Orleans. Or Detroit.

1934 – Far-right leagues rally in front of the Palais Bourbon in an attempted coup against the French Third Republic, creating a political crisis in France. In 1940, Germany helped them straighten out the Third Republic. France is up to the FIFTH Republic now. The Sixth will be under sharia.

1935 – “Monopoly” board game goes on sale for first time. It is badly out of touch with today’s reality.

1952 – Elizabeth II becomes queen regnant of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms upon the death of her father, George VI. At the exact moment of succession, she was in a treehouse at the Treetops Hotel in Kenya. She one hell of a lot more legitimate than OUR ruler from Kenya.

1959 – Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments filed the first patent for an integrated circuit.

1978 – As global warming tightens its grip on the northern hemisphere, The Blizzard of 1978, one of the worst Nor’easters in New England history, hit the region, with sustained winds of 65 mph and snowfall of 4″ an hour. Darned SUV’s!!!