Today in History

Have you been to Google yet? It used to be my homepage, but I got ticked off June 6th of last year when they honored painter Diego Velázquez' birth rather than D-Day. I guess they are on a higher, more enlightened plane than I since they found it more important to honor some arcane Spanish painter than largest single-day amphibious invasion of all time which turned the entire tide of the war, ensuring that the world did not speak German. Morons.

As it turns out, my ticked-offedness remains today, the day that one of our greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln, was born. But no, it is more important to recognize instead the birth of Charles Darwin. As a matter of fact, here are a few (just a few, mind you) of the events of which today marks the anniversary:

Women gain the right to vote in the Utah Territory

The NAACP is formed

The first release of POWs from Vietnam

Robert F. Kennedy died

Charles Schultz died

Are you getting the picture here? The fact that I believe the death of Charles Schultz is more notable than the birth of Charles Darwin tells you something. The death of Schultz marked the end to an important piece of Americana: Peanuts ran for nearly 50 years without interruption and appeared in more than 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries.

Now, let's move to the man to whom I think Google should honor today, the 16th President of the United States. Why honor this man? The main reason is that he kept the nation intact during the greatest internal crisis we've even known: civil war. During his time in office, he ended slavery, diplomatically diffused a potential war with Britain, delivered one of the greatest speeches ever written, established a transcontinental railroad system, enacted policy to establish a strong national banking system, saw the beginning of the national paper currency, and established Thanksgiving as a national holiday.

What did Darwin do? Question God. Big deal. Who doesn't at one point or another? I don't see Google putting our mugs on their home page. He published a book that gave scientists a father-figure for their already brewing thoughts and ideologies that there may not be a force greater than all others who controls the universe. Charles Darwin is nothing but the poster boy of anti-establishment thinking. That's fine - just don't make it the focus when there are so many other obvious choices of honor.

And I suppose I should thank Google, too, for giving me a juicy topic for my soapbox today!