455 AD – The Vandals enter Rome, and plunder the city for two weeks. The modern equivalent now owns the centers of most large American cities and it goes on and on and on…

1774 – Intolerable Acts: The Quartering Act is enacted, allowing a governor in colonial America to house British soldiers in uninhabited houses, outhouses, barns, or other buildings if suitable quarters were not provided. If the government can use it any way THEY want to, then it’s not really yours, is it?

1793 – Jean-Paul Marat recites the names of 29 people to the French National Convention. Almost all of these people are guillotined, followed by tens of thousands more over the course of the next year during the Reign of Terror. Liberte’, egalite’, fraternite’ or I’ll chop your freakin’ head off! Revolution, French style. Or is it the French version of “See something, say something”?

1896 – Guglielmo Marconi receives a patent for his newest invention: the radio. Whether or not he actually invented it first is of question, but he certainly got better publicity.

1953 – The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, the first to be televised, and the dear lady is still at it…

2003 – Europe launches its first voyage to another planet, Mars. The European Space Agency’s Mars Express probe launches from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan. The lander, Beagle (after Charles Darwin’s ship), fails before reaching the Martian surface.