If you are only looking at recent history, this might be true, but there’s another that had more casualties than both of these together. In it, over 150 men, women, and children were killed. Unlike the two more recent shootings, it wasn’t the work of one shooter, it was done by the U.S. military and the victims were the Lakota people. It was the Wounded Knee Massacre.

In December of 1890, the 7th Cavalry Unit of the U.S. military went to Lakota reservation to take away the guns from the Lakota people. The Lakota had been bison hunters, but the numbers of those animals had been reduced by the U.S. military in an effort to starve out the people who were dependent upon them as a food source. The reservation land they had been granted had been reduced to a smaller and smaller area by white settlers and gold miners.

One story of the event says that a man named Black Coyote didn’t want to give up his rifle since he had paid a lot for it. His reluctance led to a scuffle, shots were fired, and then the massacre followed. Whether this is true or whether the Lakota just decided that they needed to make a stand, we can’t really know but it’s something to keep in mind when you hear someone say that we would be better off if only the government, and not the people, have guns.

The Turkish government responded to the pope’s comments by recalling its ambassador to the Vatican, and summoned the Vatican’s ambassador in Ankara to express its “great disappointment and sadness.”

It’s okay, Turkey, I get disappointed when people bring up my horrendous crimes against humanity too.

So, what actually happened and when?

In 1915 there were about 2 million Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) where their ancestors had lived for 3000 years. They were both an ethnic and religious minority in the Muslim-ruled country. (Armenia, when it was independent, was the first country to make Christianity its official religion.) The Turkish government wanted a solution to the “Armenian problem” so they decided to force them from their homes and send them into the Syrian Desert without food or water.

It began on April 24 of that year. On that day the government arrested and executed several hundred Armenian intellectuals – many Armenians were well-educated business owners, lawyers, doctors, and craftsmen, in contrast to the majority Turkish peasant farmers – and the rest were given a choice of walking until they dropped dead of exhaustion and exposure or stopping walking and being shot dead on the spot.

The military weren’t the only ones to get to join in the mass murdering fun. Killing squads made up of murders and ex-convicts went about crucifying (literally), drowning, and burning Armenians. They raped the women and kidnapped children, converting them to Islam and giving them to Turkish families. The children were given new Turkish or Arabic names and were beaten if they spoke Armenian.

In May, the Ottoman government began confiscating “abandoned” Armenian property. This resulted in a lot of property seizures since people were not allowed to take anything with them nor were they allowed to sell it before they left.

Ancient cities were leveled and all traces of Armenian culture was destroyed.

The genocide didn’t end until 1922. During those years the Armenian population in Turkey went from a couple million to fewer than 400,000.

The architects of the Armenian Genocide fled to Germany which promised not to prosecute them for their crimes. They were later located and assassinated by Armenian activists.

If you see similarities between the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust, you’re not imagining it. Hitler saw how little was done by other countries to come to Armenia’s aid and used it as a guideline for his own genocidal plans.

Thus for the time being I have sent to the East only my ‘Death’s Head Units’ with the orders to kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of Polish race or language. Only in such a way will we win the vital space that we need. Who still talks nowadays about the Armenians? – Adolf Hitler

Presidential candidate Donald John Trump was born on June 14, 1946 in Queens, NY.  (This is where Prince Akeem – Eddie Murphy’s character visits in Coming to America.)

Donald Trump was the fourth of five children born to Mary Anne and Fred Trump. His mother was born in Scotland and his father was born in Queens to parents who had immigrated from Germany.

(Side note: His most direct immigrant ancestor was his mother, so why does Hillary Clinton and others concentrate on his German ancestry? That’s a rhetorical question, I know why – It’s to imply some relationship between Trump and Hitler…I guess she doesn’t know that Hitler was Austrian. Or maybe she’s sure her supporters are too ignorant to know.)

Let’s see how many cards he gets from supporters! Send them to:

Mr. Donald Trump
725 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10022

Get it in the mail soon so it gets there by the 14th!

Make a note because next year you’ll need to send it to:

President Donald Trump
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

In 1964, when Ali was still going by his birth name of Cassius Clay, he fought Sonny Liston in Miami. It was one of the most watched fights in history.

Muhammad Ali was born Cassius Clay, named after his father, who was named after a famous abolitionist, in Louisville, KY on January 17, 1942.

He began his boxing training at age 12 and fought his first professional fight in 1960. Over the next three years he had a perfect win record, 19 – 0. This put him in position to challenge Sonny Liston for his heavyweight title. They met in February 1964 and the fight lasted seven rounds, ending when Liston refused to answer the bell for that round. The match was declared a TKO in Clay’s (Ali’s) favor.

Here are the highlights from the fight.

“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Rumble, young man, rumble.” (Said by Clay/Ali before his fight with Liston.)

The first woman to run and complete the Boston Marathon was Bobbi Gibb in 1966. She finished in 3:21:40. In 2016, 50 years after being refused an official entry because women weren’t thought to be capable of running that distance, Gibb was the Boston Marathon’s grand marshal.

In 1967 Kathrine Switzer was the first woman to run as a numbered entry even though women were still not officially allowed to compete. (She had registered under K.V. Switzer.) She finished in four hours and twenty minutes, about an hour behind Bobbi Gibb who ran unregistered again.

The man shown trying to stop Switzer in the photo above is Jock Semple. He wasn’t against women running so much as he didn’t want anyone not officially entered to run. He also tried to physically stop runners who were “unserious” – mostly college boys who would come out in costume or do something for attention rather than be there to compete. He just wanted the race and its rules respected. Once women were permitted to enter, he was a strong supporter of them.

Simpson had gained fame as a Heisman Trophy winning football player, but by the 1990s, was better known by many as an actor in The Naked Gun trilogy.

But, then, Nicole and Ron were murdered on June 13, 1994. The police found evidence that made them suspect Simpson. His lawyers told police that he would turn himself in on June 17. He was due there at 11:00 am but failed to show. At 2:00, the police issued an all-points bulletin. That evening, at 5:00 Robert Kardashian, Simpson’s lawyer and friend (and father of those Kardashians), read a letter from Simpson that sounded like a suicide note:

To whom it may concern: First, everyone understand I have nothing to do with Nicole’s murder. I loved her, always have and always will. If we had a problem, it’s because I loved her so much.

Recently, we came to the understanding that for now we were not right for each other, at least for now. Despite our love we were different, and that’s why we mutually agreed to go our separate ways. It was tough splitting for a second time, but we both knew it was for the best.

Inside I had no doubt that in the future, we would be close as friends or more. Unlike what has been written in the press, Nicole and I had a great relationship for most of our lives together, Like all long-term relationships, we had a few downs and ups. I took the heat New Year’s 1989 because that’s what I was supposed to do. I did not plead no contest for any other reason but to protect our privacy and was advised it would end the press hype.

I don’t want to belabor knocking the press, but I can’t believe what is being said. Most of it is totally made up. I know you have a job to do, but as a last wish, please, please, please, leave my children in peace. Their lives will be tough enough.

I want to send my love and thanks to all my friends. I’m sorry I can’t name every one of you, especially A.C. man, thanks for being in my life. The support and friendship I received from so many: Wayne Hughes, Lewis Markes, Frank Olson, Mark Packer, Bender, Bobby Kardashian.

I wish we had spent more time together in recent years. My golfing buddies, Hoss, Alan Austin, Mike, Craig, Bender, Wyler, Sandy, Jay, Donnie, thanks for the fun. All my teammates over the years, Reggie, you were the soul of my pro career. Ahmad, I never stopped being proud of you. Marcus, You’ve got a great lady in Catherine, don’t mess it up. Bobby Chandler, thanks for always being there. Skip and Kathy, I love you guys, without you I never would have made it through this far. Marguerite, thanks for the early years. We had some fun. Paula, what can I say? You are special. I’m sorry we’re not going to have our chance. God brought you to me I now see. As I leave, you’ll be in my thoughts.

I think of my life and feel I’ve done most of the right things. What the outcome, people will look and point. I can’t take that. I can’t subject my children to that. This way they can move on and go on with their lives. Please, if I’ve done anything worthwhile in my life. Let my kids live in peace from you (press).

I’ve had a good life. I’m proud of how I lived. My mama taught me to do unto other. I treated people the way I wanted to be treated. I’ve always tried to be up and helpful so why is this happening? I’m sorry for the Goldman family. I know how much it hurts.

Nicole and I had a good life together. All this press talk about a rocky relationship was no more than what every long-term relationship experiences. All her friends will confirm that I have been totally loving and understanding of what she’s been going through. At times I have felt like a battered husband or boyfriend but I loved her, make that clear to everyone. And I would take whatever it took to make it work.

Don’t feel sorry for me. I’ve had a great life, great friends. Please think of the real O.J. and not this lost person.

Thanks for making my life special. I hope I helped yours.

Peace and love, O.J.

He made a smiley face inside the “O” of his initial. If that’s not a sign of a disturbed mind, or a 13-year-old girl (but I repeat myself), I don’t know what is!

A little after 6:00 that evening, OJ Simpson was seen riding in a white Ford Bronco. Police were notified and, shortly before 7:00, were able to track down the vehicle. When they approached it, the driver, Al Cowlings (a friend and former teammate), told them that Simpson was in the back with a gun to his head. The police backed off but continued to follow the SUV. What came next was the most surreal, and most watched, police car chase in the history of forever.

Driving as slow as 35 miles per hour, the chase went on for 50 miles. The Bronco was followed by 20 police cars and another 20 news helicopters. TV stations interrupted their regular broadcasts to cover the chase. Over 95 million people watched from home and thousands of Californians stood on overpasses to watch the Bronco travel down I-405 and lined the streets near Simpson’s Brentwood home.

(This is a short clip. If you want to watch the whole glorious 55 minutes of it, you can do so here.)

Eventually Cowlings drove the Bronco to Simpson’s home and, after another of his attorneys, Robert Shapiro, arrived, Simpson turned himself over to the police. He was arraigned on July 29 and pleaded “Absolutely, one hundred percent, not guilty.”

OJ’s defense team included the two attorneys mentioned before, Robert Kardashian and Robert Shapiro, along with F. Lee Bailey, Alan Dershowitz, Gerald Uelmen, Carl E. Douglas, and Johnnie Cochran. Deputy District Attorneys Marcia Clark and Christopher A. Darden were the prosecutors.

Even though the evidence against Simpson was strong and included much DNA evidence, the jury (10 women and 2 men/9 blacks, 2 whites, and 1 Hispanic) returned a not guilty verdict after four hours of deliberation on October 2, 1995. Judge Ito waited to announce it until 10:00 am on October 3.

The jury in the criminal case were accused of being too ignorant to understand the DNA evidence and of being biased (because of the majority black jurors). Critics said they found OJ not guilty simply because blacks were outraged over the LA police in the Rodney King trial three years earlier being found not guilty.

The police were accused of mishandling evidence and  Detective Mark Fuhrman was accused during the trial of being a racist. The prosecutors failed to let the jury know that Simpson’s story changed several times while he was being interviewed and about items he had in the Bronco with him – several thousand dollars in cash, his passport, a change of clothing, and a fake mustache and goatee. They also made a mistake when they decided to have OJ try to put on the left-hand, blood-soaked glove found at the murder scene (and which was the match for the right-hand glove found at Simpson’s home). That lead to this…

Critics thought that the prosecutors and the judge had let themselves be influenced by the TVs in the courtroom. That lead to the Dancing Itos (named after Judge Ito), this time featuring (prosecutor) “Marcia Clark”.

In 1997 Ron Goldman’s parents and Nicole Brown Simpson’s father brought a wrongful death civil suit against Simpson. The standards of evidence for a civil trial only require a “preponderance of evidence” while a criminal trial requires proof “beyond a reasonable doubt”. The jury in this trial found OJ was likely guilty and required him to pay $12.6 million to Nicole’s and OJ’s children, Sydney and Justin, (as heirs to their mother’s estate) and $33.5 million in damages to the victims’ families.

In 2006 a book called If I Did It by OJ Simpson (ghostwritten by Pablo Fenjves) was to be published.  In it, Simpson offered a “hypothetical” description of how he would have accomplished the murders. The original publication was cancelled but it was released the next year with the title, If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer. A court awarded the rights to the book to the Goldman family – they got 90% of the profits – to help pay some of the money Simpson owed the family after the civil trial.

On October 3, 2008, exactly thirteen years after he was found not guilty in the murder trial, OJ Simpson was found guilty of armed robbery and sentenced to 33 years in prison. He and several other men broke into a room at the Palace Station hotel in Las Vegas, NV. They had robbed Bruce Fromong of some sports memorabilia items at gunpoint. Did karma catch up with him? Or did he develop hubris after getting away with two murders and think he was untouchable?