1455 – Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western book printed from movable type. Printed in Mainz, Germany, where I was stationed 1974-77. They have the Gutenberg Museum, with an original Gutenberg bible as one of many interesting displays. I spent three great years in Mainz.

1778 – American Revolution: Baron von Steuben arrives at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania to help to train the Continental Army. This is regarded as the birth of the drill sergeant.

1836 – The Battle of the Alamo begins in San Antonio, Texas. Sometimes you have to fight, knowing that you might lose…

1847 – Mexican-American War: Battle of Buena Vista – In Mexico, American troops under General Zachary Taylor defeat Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna. If we’d have hanged him after we captured him following the Battle of San Jacinto, we could have saved a lot of trouble. The guy was a psychotic, murderous thug.

1903 – Cuba leases Guantánamo Bay to the United States “in perpetuity”. I’m surprised that obama didn’t give it back.

1945 – World War II: During the Battle of Iwo Jima, a group of United States Marines and a commonly forgotten U.S. Navy Corpsman, reach the top of Mount Suribachi on the island and are photographed raising the American flag.

1945 – World War II: Capitulation of German garrison in Pozna. The city is ‘liberated’ by Soviet and Polish forces, where ‘liberated’ means rule by ONE murderous dictatorial regime is replaced by rule by another murderous dictatorial regime for the next forty-odd years.

1954 – The first mass inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine begins in Pittsburgh. Polio was the big “scare” disease when I was a kid. You seldom hear of it today. Two years later me and my brother and sisters stood in LINE to get the vaccine. Polio was the big scare when I was a kid. Now you never hear of it. But vaccines’re bad, huh?

1632 – Galileo’s Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems is published. Science (the earth revolves around the Sun) conflicts with politics (the Sun and planets revolve around the earth) and Galileo wins a trip to the Inquisition. You’d have thought he was a global warming denier or something…

1797 – Last Invasion of Britain: 1797 The Last Invasion of Britain by the French, begins near Fishguard, Wales. Ends three days later with a French surrender. Quelle surprise!

1819 – By the Adams-Onís Treaty, Spain sells Florida to the United States for five million U.S. dollars.

1847 – Mexican-American War: The Battle of Buena Vista – 5,000 American troops drive off 15,000 Mexicans. Two presidents participated: Zachary Taylor and Jefferson Davis. This was back when presidents were expected to protect American interests.

1848 – The French Revolution of 1848, which would lead to the establishment of the French Second Republic, begins. It lasts three years and ends with the re-establishment of the monarchy. The Germans help them end the monarchy, so they get a Third Republic. The Germans help them end the Third Republic, too. They’re on Republic #5 now. #6 will probably be under sharia law.

1879 – In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opens the first of many of 5 and 10-cent Woolworth stores. Oh, to be a little boy with a whole dollar on the Woolworth’s toy aisle in 1957…

1942 – World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as American defenses collapses. FDR pulled McArthur because he couldn’t win. Truman fired him ten years later for WANTING to win.

1943 – World War II: Members of White Rose are executed in Nazi Germany. That’s how REAL Nazis treat student protestors.

1958 – Egypt and Syria join to form the United Arab Republic. It’s not particularly united and damned sure not a republic. Lasts three years.

1980 – Miracle on Ice: In Lake Placid, New York, the United States hockey team defeats the Soviet Union hockey team 4-3, in what is considered to be one of the greatest upsets in sports history. this was in the day when professional athletes were forbidden to play in Olympic events. The American team was mostly collegiate athletes. The Soviets were as close to full-time pros as one could imagine, with the added incentive that poor performance could land a participant in Siberia.

1797 – The Last Invasion Of Great Britain – A force of 1,400 French soldiers invaded Britain at Fishguard in support of the Society of United Irishmen. They were defeated by 500 British reservists, resulting in a French unconditional surrender.

1804 – The first self-propelling steam locomotive makes its outing at the Pen-y-Darren ironworks in Wales.

1848 – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish the Communist Manifesto. You’ll find it on obama’s bookshelf in place of the Bible and the Constitution.

1878 – The first telephone book is issued in New Haven, Connecticut, with 50 entries.

1916 – World War I: In France, the Battle of Verdun begins. Before the battle ends in December, 300,000 men from both sides will lie dead in the mud. Another half million were wounded.

1945 – World War II: At Iwo Jima, Japanese kamikaze planes sink the escort carrier USS Bismarck Sea and damage the USS Saratoga. This is the last American carrier sunk in WW II.

1947 – In New York City, Edwin Land demonstrates the first “instant camera”, the Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America.

1948 – NASCAR is incorporated. That’s National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, and folks, if those are ‘stock’, then I’m Katerina, Tsarina of All the Russias. I propose that each team be given $40,000, told to go to a dealer in small-town America, buy any car with a production run of more than 50,000 units, then go to the track and race THAT!

1960 – Cuban leader Fidel Castro nationalizes all businesses in Cuba. American Leftists start taking notes, thinking this is a Good Idea.

1965 – Malcolm X is assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City by members of the Nation of Islam. This is the exactly same way dissenting points of view are handled in Mother Africa.

1972 – President Richard Nixon visits the People’s Republic of China to normalize Sino-American relations. Truman stopped MacArthur from atomically normalizing them back to the Stone Age in 1950, a dimmocrat president insuring that yet another population stays enslaved for generations.

1995 – Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon, his success thereby opening the floodgates as today, dozens of passenger balloons trek across the Pacific daily.

1792 – The Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Post Office Department, is signed by President George Washington. The next day they apply to congress for a rate increase.

1816 – Rossini’s opera The Barber of Seville premieres at the Teatro Argentina in Rome.

1877 – Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake receives its premiere at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.

1933 – The Congress of the United States proposes the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution that will end Prohibition in the United States. Why end it? Because it didn’t work. Just like drugs and guns.

1933 – Adolf Hitler secretly meets with German industrialists to arrange for financing of the Nazi Party’s upcoming election campaign. Obama wasn’t nearly that subtle with Solindra, GE, and others, nor is Hillary with quarter million dollar ‘fees’ from speaking to Wall Street firms.

1942 – Lieutenant Edward O’Hare becomes America’s first World War II flying ace, shooting down five Japanese bombers. He was lost in 1943, and Chicago named its airport after him, at least until it’s renamed to honor a disadvantaged member of the vibrant diversity wrongly shot by evil police while he’s engaged in the practice of undocumented pharmaceutical distribution.

1943 – American movie studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor movies. Can you imagine?

1962 – Mercury program: While aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn orbits the earth three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes, becoming the first American to orbit the earth. We watched the whole thing on TV, start to splashdown.

1971 – Major General (Of what? The Ugandan Army?) Idi Amin Dada appoints himself president of Uganda. In a twist of the old phrase, “losers are toast”, Idi’s opponents are served on toast…

1998 – UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan lands in Baghdad for peace negotiations. There is NO fool like a pompous little career bureaucrat fool drawing a UN paycheck.

1846 – In Austin, Texas the newly-formed Texas state government is officially installed. The Republic of Texas government officially transfers power to the State of Texas government following Texas’ annexation by the United States.

1878 – The phonograph is patented by Thomas Edison. It can be reasonably produced in a moderately equipped machine shop with common tools, materials and techniques. Try that with an iPhone.

1906 – WK Kellogg & Charles Bolin found the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company.

1913 – First prize inserted into a Cracker Jack box. 2009 – Barack Obama opens a box of Cracker Jacks and finds a Nobel Peace Prize.

1941 – World War II: The Afrika Korps, the corps-level headquarters controlling the German Panzer divisions in North Africa, is formed after Italy bit off more than they could chew in North Africa.

1942 – World War II: United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs executive order 9066, allowing the United States military to relocate Japanese Americans to internment camps.

1943 – World War II: Battle of the Kasserine Pass in Tunisia begins. We fought Feldmarshall Rommel when he was at the top of his game and we got our butts kicked.

1945 – World War II: Battle of Iwo Jima – about 30,000 United States Marines land on Iwo Jima. 25 days later the battle is over. Allied (mostly American) casualties were 6,821 dead and 19,189 wounded. The Japanese lost 21,703 dead and 1,083 captured. “Uncommon valor was a common virtue.” The combat losses at Iwo and Okinawa provide horrible visions of the upcoming invasion of Japan and a fine impetus to drop the nukes.

1685 – Fort St. Louis is established by a Frenchman at Matagorda Bay thus forming the basis for France’s claim to Texas. If Texas kicked Mexico’s butt, and Mexico beat France, what chance would France stand against Texas? Do they REALLY want Tex-Mex, Shiner beer and barbecue in Paris?

1841 – The first ongoing filibuster in the United States Senate begins and lasts until March 11. You didn’t just SAY you were going to filibuster, you had to actually talk the whole darned time. Today these over-paid self-important fops just get by with threatening and posturing.

1861 – Confederate President Jefferson Davis inaugurated at Montgomery, Alabama.

1901 – H. Cecil Booth patented a dust removing vacuum cleaner.

1947 – First Indochina War: The French gain complete control of Hanoi after forcing the Viet Minh to withdraw to mountains. This will end well.

1954 – The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles, California. A second-tier science fiction author jokes about starting a religion, and people take him seriously when he does.

1957 – Kenyan rebel leader Dedan Kimathi is executed by the British colonial government. When you read what sort of activities that Kimathi and the Mau-Mau perpetrated on their opposition, you’ll think that the Brits acted with too much restraint.

1979 – As global warming grips Africa, snow falls in the Sahara Desert in southern Algeria for the only recorded time in history.