Merry Christmas to all may the day be bright for you wherever you are. I hope you all remember that long ago a King was crowned. That is William the Conquerer who was crowned this day in 1066. Happy Holidays happened for years afterwards.
December 20th:
Louisiana Purchase MapToday in 1803 the United States of America nearly doubled in size with the completion of the Louisiana Purchase. France was burdened by the expense of the Napoleonic Wars and facing rebellion in many of their colonies so they decided that ending their North American ambitions was worth the millions they would [...]
December 19th: Today in 1988 the Consumer Product Safety Commission banned the sport of kings, Lawn Darts. Once Lawn Darts were outlawed only outlaws had Lawn Darts. I once put a real dart through my best friends big toe playing chicken, imagine what I could have done with a Lawn Dart!
Mice on a plane. Terror at 30,000 feet. Mankind is doomed.
December 15th: Today in 1891 James Naismith started the modern game of Basketball by coming up with thirteen rules, two teams of nine players and peach crates nailed to the opposite sides of a gym. I wonder what he would think about the game as it is played now? Amazing it was only started in [...]
December 14th: Today in 1702 the 47 Ronin, former Samurai servants of disgraced lord, took their revenge on the the Samurai lord who had caused their master’s disgrace and death. They had waited for more than a year to allow the Lord to let his guard down then assaulted his home in carefully planned attack. [...]
December 13th: Today in 1862 General Ambrose Burnside launched numerous failed attacks against General Robert E. Lee while losing the Battle of Fredericksburg. Burnsides attacks cost the Union Army twelve hundred men killed and ten thousand men wounded while failing to budge the Confederate Army at all. The loss was a low point for the [...]
December 12th: Today in 1870 Joseph Rainey was seated in the United States House of Representatives becoming the first black man to serve there. He served for four terms and worked as a champion of civil rights before finally losing as the south began to undo the reconstruction. He was born a slave but [...]
December 11th: Today in 1951 Joe Dimaggio announced his retirement from baseball. His fifty-six game hitting streak remains one of the most impressive records in baseball and he left a record of championships that is still amazing. Even for die hard Yankee haters like myself he represented a type of give it all baseball player [...]
December 10th: Today in 1968 one of the biggest robberies in Japanese history took place, the 300 Million Yen Robbery (worth about 18 million dollars in today’s money). The money stolen by what appears to have been an extremely clever conman. The robber stopped a car carrying cash by pretending to be a policeman [...]