This Day In History

Nothing eventful is happening this year.

• Republicans in Congress are attacking the Administration for not being perfect, are planning to devastate the economy because it reelected a Democrat, and are attacking poor people.
• There is a civil war somewhere in the Middle East.
• Workers are dying because of their exploitative employers.

In other words, same old shit.

Bad Politics and Bad Economics
1774 - Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were crowned absolute monarchs of France. They would both be beheaded by revolutionaries 19 years later.
1837 - New York City banks failed causing a major economic recession.
1849 - A dispute between two actors, one American and one British, led to the Astor Place Riot. Government officials, supporting the noble British actor, called out the police and militia to suppress immigrant supporters of the American actor. Thirty people were killed.
1893 - the US Supreme Court sided with the tomato lobby and against common sense and ruled that the tomato was a vegetable and not a fruit.
1924 - J. Edgar Hoover became head of the FBI beginning a reign of terror that lasted until his death 48 years later.
1933 - German students burned 25,000 "un-German" books.

"Yes to decency and morality in family and state!" ~ Joseph Goebbels

Stupid Wars
70 - Roman troops begin the Siege of Jerusalem.
1801 - Barbary pirates in current Libya declare war on the United States.
1857 - The Sepoy Rebellion begins in India. Nearly 10 million people died during the war which resulted in the British government taking control of India.
1940 - Germany invades the Low Countries and begins bombing England.
2012 - Car bombs, part of the Syrian Civil War, in Damascus kill 55 and wound 400.

Bad Business
1908 - The first Mother's Day is celebrated and quickly taken over by corporate interests. It is the second largest gift giving and third largest card giving date on the calendar.
1962 - Marvel Comics published the first Incredible Hulk issue.
1975 - Sony introduces the Betamax.
1993 - A fire at the Kadar Toy Factory (Thailand) kills 188 and wounds 500 others. Toys for Disney and Mattel were made there.