This date in history

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1862 Confederates scuttle CSS Virginia off Norfolk, VA.

1924 Mercedes-Benz is formed by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz, merging the two companies.

1941 1st Messerschmidt 109F shot down above England.

1943 Hermann Goering division in Tunisia surrenders.

1943 US 7th div lands on Attu, Aleutian, (first US territory recaptured).

1960 Israeli soldiers capture Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires.

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1937: SPAM® processed in Austin, MN, (Spam Town USA) is officially registered as a trademark! Ken Daigneau, brother of a company executive, won a $100 prize that year in a competition to name the new item. Hormel claims that the meaning of the name "is known by only a small circle of former Hormel Foods executives", but popular beliefs are that the name is an abbreviation of "spiced ham", "spare meat", or "shoulders of pork and ham. Another popular explanation is that Spam is an acronym standing for "Specially Processed American Meat" or "Specially Processed Army Meat"! Culturally it is utterly ICONIC... from the Muppet Show: sued by Hormel for trademark infringement..
Chief Spa'am To the iconic 's
to Monty Pythons mockery of 'a wartime delicacy' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_(Monty_Python)

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1940 German blitzkrieg conquest of France began by crossing Muese River.

1942 U-507 sank the 10,000 ton SS Virginia in the mouth of the Mississippi River.

1951 1st H Bomb test, on Enewetak Atoll.

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1912 Royal Flying Corps forms in Great Britain.

1913 First four-engined aircraft built and flown (Igor Sikorsky, Russia)

1940 Winston Churchill says I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears & sweat.

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1747 A British fleet under Admiral George Anson defeats the French at first battle of Cape Finisterre.

1927 Cap Arcona is launched at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg.

1943 Sinking of the Australian Hospital Ship Centaur off the coast of Queensland, by a Japanese submarine.

1944 Gen Rommel, Speidel & von Stulpnagel attempt to assassinate Hitler.

1945 Kamikaze Zero strikes US aircraft carrier Enterprise.

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1804: The Corps of Discovery departs from Camp Dubois near present-day Wood River, Illinois at 4 p.m., marking the beginning of the voyage to the Pacific coast.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition from May 1804 to September 1806, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the first American expedition to cross what is now the western portion of the United States. It began near St. Louis, made its way westward, and passed through the continental divide to reach the Pacific coast. The Corps of Discovery comprised a selected group of U.S. Army volunteers under the command of Captain Meriwether Lewis and his close friend, Second Lieutenant William Clark.
President Thomas Jefferson commissioned the expedition shortly after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 to explore and to map the newly acquired territory, to find a practical route across the western half of the continent, and to establish an American presence in this territory before Britain and other European powers tried to claim it.
The campaign's secondary objectives were scientific and economic: to study the area's plants, animal life, and geography, and to establish trade with local Native American tribes. With maps, sketches, and journals in hand, the expedition returned to St. Louis to report its findings to Jefferson

Real-estate Rule #1: when u got a hell of a land grab git from a failed slave uprising in Haiti( causing Napoleon's 'fire sale' of all of French claims to middle-America) best to find out what a hell of a git u got! The more so as the Spanish having an equal claim sent dragoons to the hunt the Corps of Discovery and exterminate it...history records: no encounter took place. interestingly: "... the expedition and its importance disappeared from history till the twentieth century references to Lewis and Clark "scarcely appeared" in history books even during the United States Centennial in 1876 and the expedition was largely forgotten. Lewis and Clark began to gain new attention around the start of the 20th century. Both the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, in St. Louis, and the 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, in Portland, Oregon, showcased Lewis and Clark as American pioneers. However, the story remained relatively shallow, a celebration of U.S. conquest and personal adventures, until the mid-century, since which time it has been more thoroughly researched and retold in many forms to a growing audience. In 2004, a complete and reliable set of the expedition's journals was compiled by Gary E. Moulton. In the 2000s, the bicentennial of the expedition further elevated popular interest in Lewis and Clark. As of 1984, no U.S. exploration party was more famous, and no American expedition leaders are more instantly recognizable by name." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition
And just for Jeff Groves-Air rifle maestro; the single gun that literally won the west without killing anyone: the Girandoni was known in Austria as a windbusche, or “wind rifle.” Typical US policy 'shock and awe' technology to dazzle little brown people>

Whatever its provenance, historians have determined that it was most likely purchased by Captain Meriwether Lewis between May 9 and June 9, 1803, at Isaiah Lukens’ instrument shop just outside Philadelphia. Lewis was en route to Pittsburgh at the time for the final construction and fitting out of the Corps of Discovery’s keelboat. On the very first page of Lewis’ personal journal kept on the trip, he recounts how he demonstrated the weapon’s capabilities to the wonderment of the crowd. The Indians, he said, considered the rifle “something from the gods.”

It was during its service with the Corps of Discovery that the Girandoni came into its own. Whenever a new tribe was encountered by the expedition, Lewis and Clark staged a grand entrance calculated to impress (or intimidate) the natives. Such pomp and ceremony, they believed, would dissuade potentially hostile actions by the Native Americans while they tried to understand who or what they were confronting. Lewis and Clark did their utmost to impress the tribesmen. The explorers donned their most colorful military uniforms—frock coats, sparkling swords, formal headgear, polished muskets and bayonets—and with flags flying and fifes whistling, they marched boldly into each meeting. The explorers greeted the assembled tribesmen with formal gravity and then proceeded to hand out gifts such as bolts of colored cloth, beads, and commemorative medallions.
At some point in the proceedings, Lewis would confidently display his Girandoni and demonstrate its remarkable power. In his journal, Private Joseph Whitehouse described one such event on August 30, 1803, at a Yankton Sioux village located along the Calumet Bluffs of the Missouri River: “Captain Lewis took his Air Gun and shot her off, and by the Interpreter, told them that there was medicine in her, and that she could do very great execution,” wrote Whitehouse. “They all stood amazed at this curiosity; Captain Lewis discharged was done the Air Gun several times, and the Indians ran hastily to see the holes that the Balls had made which was discharged from it. At finding the Balls had entered the Tree, they shouted a loud at the sight and the Execution that suprized [sic] them exceedingly.”
Lewis would repeat this demonstration for every tribe encountered (there are no fewer than 39 separate entries in the expedition’s journals mentioning the Girandoni), leaving all onlookers in doubt as to how many of these weapons the expedition carried. As much as the Indians coveted the guns and goods which the Corps of Discovery carried, none was bold enough to make an outright grab for the goods. If each of the explorers had a Girandoni, with the capability of firing two dozen shots in seconds with deadly accuracy, any hostile acts could be handled easily by the small band.

http://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/military-history/lewis-and-clarks-girandoni-air-rifle/ http://www.beemans.net/lewis-assault-rifle.htm

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1914 US Colonel Edward House sails for Europe to persuade major powers to reduce armies and navies; from Germany, House reports: 'Everybody's nerves are tense; it only needs a spark to set the whole thing off'

1940 USS Sailfish (SS-192) recomisioned, origionaly the Squalus.

1943 Halifax bomber sinks U-463.

1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising ends in its destruction.

1944 14,000 Jews of Munkacs, Hungary, deported to Auschwitz.

1944 Eisenhower, Montgomery, Churchill & George VI discuss D-Day plan.

1945 World War II: The final skirmish in Europe is fought near Prevalje, Slovenia.

1957 1st British H-bomb explosion (over Christmas Island).

1967 Paul McCartney meets his future wife Linda Eastman.

1972 The island of Okinawa, under U.S. military governance since its conquest in 1945, reverts to Japanese control.

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1943 Operation Chastise: No. 617 Squadron RAF begins the famous Dambusters Raid, bombing the Möhne and Eder dams in the Ruhr valley with bouncing bombs.

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1897 The first successful submarine that can run submerged for any considerable distance and combines electric and gasoline engines is launched in the USA by its designer John Philip Holland.

1944 General Eisenhower sets D-Day for June 5th.

1961 Castro offers to exchange Bay of Pigs prisoners for 500 bulldozers.

1975 Mick Jagger punches a restaurant window, gets 20 stitches.

1987 USS Stark hit by Iraqi missiles, 37 sailors die.

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1917 First units of the American Expeditionary Force, commanded by General John J. Pershing, is ordered to France.

1965 Gene Roddenberry suggests 16 names for Star Trek Captain; they include Kirk.

1974 India becomes the sixth nation to explode an atomic bomb.

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1916 Escadrille Américaine (Lafayette) transfered to Verdun.

1931 Cruiser Deutschland launched in Kiel.

1941 German battleship Bismarck leaves Gdynia, Poland.

1943 Berlin is declared "Judenrien" (free of Jews).

1943 Churchill pledges Britain's full support to US against Japan.

1959 The USS Triton, the first submarine with two nuclear reactors, is completed.

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1927: movie Wings is released, premiering in San Antonio TX!! Starring Clara Bow and "Buddy' Rogers it wins first Oscar for best picture! The photography and (dangerous0 stunts are superb even by today's standaeds, Required viewing! https://vimeo.com/81593297 (popcorn required)

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1780: an unusual darkening of the day sky was observed over the New England states and parts of Canada. The primary cause of the event is believed to have been a combination of smoke from forest fires,. a thick fog, and cloud cover. The darkness was so complete that candles were required from noon on. The moon was seen as blood red! It did not disperse until the middle of the next night. The darkness was seen at least as far north as Portland, Maine, and extended southwards to New Jersey. Many thought it was 'the day of Judgement' as per Revelation 6:12-13!

The Sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole Moon became as blood.

The likely cause of the Dark Day was smoke from extensive forest fires. When a fire does not kill a tree and the tree later grows, scar marks are left in the growth rings. This makes it possible to approximate the date of a past fire. Researchers examining the scar damage in Ontario, Canada, attribute the Dark Day to a large fire in the area that is today occupied by Algonquin Provincial Park.

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1310 Shoes first made for both right and left feet.

1845 HMS Erebus and HMS Terror with 134 men under John Franklin sail from the River Thames in England, beginning a disastrous expedition to find the Northwest Passage. All hands are lost.

1930 First airplane catapulted from a dirigible, Charles Nicholson, pilot.

1969 US troop capture Hill 937/Hamburger Hill Vietnam.

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1904 Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) forms in Paris.

1927 Aviator Charles Lindbergh, in the Spirit of St Louis, lands in Paris after the first solo air crossing of Atlantic.

1932 1st transatlantic solo flight by a woman (Amelia Earhart) lands in Ireland.

1941 SS Robin Moore is first US ship sunk by a U-boat.

1942 Convoy PQ16 departs Great Britain for Russia.

1945 Nazi SS-Reichsfuehrer Heinrich Himmler captured.

1946 Physicist Louis Slotin is exposed to a lethal dose of radiation while preparing a plutonium core experiment at the Los Alamos lab, he dies 9 days later and the accident ends all hands-on nuclear assembly work at Los Alamos.

1982 British troops land on Falkland Islands.