1718 – The city of New Orleans is founded by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville. Becomes a drain on the French government. Now it’s a drain on the state of Louisiana and the American government. Americans can visit a Third-World Hellhole™ without being violated by a TSA gamma-minus. (Unless you fly. Then they get to grope you at will.)

1794 – French Revolution: Robespierre introduces the Cult of the Supreme Being in the National Convention as the new state religion of the French First Republic. Terrible! You do away with the OLD religion and find that your NEW religion needs blood. LOTS of blood.

1824 – World premiere of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in Vienna, Austria. The performance is conducted by Michael Umlauf under the composer’s supervision.

1915 – World War I: German submarine U-20 sinks RMS Lusitania, killing 1,198 people including 128 Americans. Public reaction to the sinking turns many formerly pro-Germans in the United States against the German Empire. And it was a clever set-up. The ship WAS carrying war materiel for the Brits.(Excellent write-up of the sinking at Dr. Grumpy’s place)

1942 – During the Battle of the Coral Sea, United States Navy aircraft carrier aircraft attack and sink the Imperial Japanese Navy light aircraft carrier Shoho. The battle marks the first time in the naval history that two enemy fleets fight without visual contact between warring ships.

1945 – World War II: General Alfred Jodl signs unconditional surrender terms at Reims, France, ending Germany’s participation in the war. The document takes effect the next day.

1946 – Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded with around 20 employees.

1954 – Indochina War: The Battle of Dien Bien Phu ends in a French defeat and a Vietnamese victory (the battle began on March 13). Another war where thousands of American lives would be lost following up after a French failure.

1976 – Honda Accord officially launched. It’s the first car made by a Japanese manufacturer in factory in the USA. Little known fact: Jesus drove a Honda but didn’t talk about it. “For I did not speak of my own accord” – John 12:49

1998 – Mercedes-Benz buys Chrysler for US$40 billion and forms DaimlerChrysler in the largest industrial merger in history. It gets worse. Now they’re owned by FIAT (Fix It Again, Tony)

1999 – In Guinea-Bissau, President João Bernardo Vieira is ousted in a military coup. Politics as usual in Africa.