This Day In History

• 1562 The Battle of Dreux was fought between the Huguenots and the Catholics, beginning the French Wars of Religion. The two armies stood around for two hours looking at each other before the action began. This battle was a study in ineptitude, a military practice the French honed and perfected in the centuries since.
• 1777 Gen. George Washington led his army of about 11,000 men to Valley Forge, PA, to camp for the winter. They didn't leave until June 19, 1778. Yet, despite the ever-present fear of mutiny, no real disaffection occurred. As Hessian Major Baurmeister conceded, the army was kept from disintegrating by the "spirit of liberty." Men and officers accepted their tragic plight with a sense of humor and extraordinary forbearance, but it was an ordeal that no army could be expected to undergo for long. Nathanael Greene wrote to General Washington, "God grant we may never be brought to such a wretched condition again."
• 1958 No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: "The Chipmunk Song,'' The Chipmunks with David Seville. The song is the second No. 1 for Chipmunks creator Ross Bagdasarian, alias David Seville. Before he created the Chipmunks, Seville hit in April 1958 with "Witch Doctor''.
• 1959 Walter Williams died in Houston, TX, at the age of 117. He was said to be the last surviving veteran of the U.S. Civil War. He was a Confederate. When a newspaper reporter asked him to describe his function as a soldier, he replied testily, "I stole food, that's what!''
• 1973 Johnny Carson started a fake toilet-paper scare on the "Tonight Show." He said "You know what's disappearing from the supermarket shelves ? Toilet paper. There's an acute shortage of toilet paper in the United States." The next morning, many of the 20 million television viewers ran to the supermarket and bought all the toilet paper they could find. By noon, most of the stores were out of stock!
• 1985 ABC Sports announced that it was severing ties with Howard Cosell and released ‘The Mouth’ from all TV commitments. Cosell continued on ABC Radio for another five years. "Look at that little monkey run !" has gone down in history as one of the fastest ways to ruin a sports broadcasting career, right alongside "They're bred for it".
• 1996 The school board of Oakland, CA, voted to recognize Black English, also known as "Ebonics." The board later reversed its stance. What uh bunch o' crap all ye damn hood ratz
• 1998 President Bill Clinton was impeached on two charges of perjury and obstruction of justice by the U.S. House of Representatives. And rightfully so.
• 2000 The U.N. Security Council voted to impose sanctions on Afghanistan's Taliban rulers unless they closed all terrorist training camps and surrender U.S. embassy bombing suspect Osama bin Laden. We all know how effective those sanctions were and the results of the Clinton Administration's inaction against terrorists as well as the eight years of budget cuts for the military and intelligence Organizations under the Clinton Administration.