January 23

Well according to most, it was on this date in 3102 B.C. that the Kali Yuga began. In Hinduism, it's the fourth and final period of creation, when Krishna leaves the Earth. Since Creation starts off great and goes downhill, you can imagine how this epoch looks. Read up on it- according to the source here, it includes leaders imposing high taxes, lack of morality, intoxication, and so on. Basically, it could be called The Age of The Democrat Party, though it started a few thousand years too early.

In 1793, Russia and Prussia partition Poland for the second time. Sadly, it won't be the last time though. Poland proves the African proverb: when elephants fight, the grass gets trampled.

In 1879, one of the great "stands" in military history comes to an end. Surprisingly, it's a good ending! Yesterday was the Battle of Isandlwana, and after wiping out an entire British force, the Zulus attacked a small outpost at Rorke's Drift. 150 defenders managed to hold on against 3-4000 attackers, and won 11 Victoria Crosses.

And speaking of South Africa, in 1900 the Boers defeated the British at the Battle of Spion Kop. Witnesses to the battle on the British side included journalist and courier Winston Churchill and stretcher bearer Mohandas Gandhi.

1943 had quite a busy day today. In Libya, Monty and his forces captured Tripoli, the US and Australian forces defeat the Japanese in New Guinea, and over on Guadalcanal, US forces inflicted a major defeat on the Japanese, which pretty much sealed the deal there. Not that it wasn't already sealed, mind you.

In 1973, Nixon announced a peace deal with North Vietnam. As we all know, that was the end of the war, because communists are sticklers about treaty agreements.

And finally, in 2002, journalist Daniel Pearl is kidnapped in Pakistan. We all know how that turned out, but we also know that it wasn't the fault of the killers, it had nothing to do with religion, blah blah blah. No, they sawed his head off for unknown reasons, and just *happened* to be shouting the name of Allah as they did it.

On that depressing note, I guess we're done.

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