1664 – The Duke of York and Albany’s Maritime Regiment of Foot, later to be known as the Royal Marines, is established.

1775 – American Revolutionary War: A British proclamation forbids residents from leaving Boston. That recent bombing and the police orders in the aftermath show that Boston is a lot more amenable to government control than it was in 1775. Leave the city? How about ‘Don’t leave your HOUSE.” And they obeyed. Sad.

1886 – In New York Harbor, President Grover Cleveland dedicates the Statue of Liberty. Like many things French, it’s magnificent. And hollow.

1919 – The U.S. Congress passes the Volstead Act over President Woodrow Wilson’s veto, paving the way for Prohibition to begin the following January. And we all know how well that little bit of government tampering turned out. Works equally well for drugs, huh? Now, the Left wants to try it with guns.

1940 – World War II: Greece rejects Italy’s ultimatum. The Greco-Italian War begins. Italy invades Greece through Albania, marking Greece’s entry into World War II. When the Italians can’t maintain control, they have to call the Germans in, which is not a happy development for anybody except the Germans who are here instead of getting ready to fight a couple of million screaming Soviets in Russian winter.

1956 – Elvis Presley receives a polio vaccination on national TV. This single event is credited with raising immunization levels in the United States from 0.6% to over 80% in just six months. Because of this polio is almost unknown today, a great step up from permanent crippling disease and a life in an iron lung.

1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis: Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that he had ordered the removal of Soviet missile bases in Cuba. The world steps back from the brink of nuclear war. Today John Fonda Kerry would call him up and say “Forget that! I hate America too!”

2006 – The funeral service takes place for those executed at Bykivnia forest, outside Kiev, Ukraine. 817 Ukrainian civilians (out of some 100,000) executed by Bolsheviks at Bykivnia in 1930s – early 1940s are reburied. Just remember that these deaths were the result of a centralized, powerful government who KNEW how best to run the country and this was ONE of many graves filled with people who got in the way of the advent of a socialist utopia.