This Day in History October 23

Today's history has a lot of content. To begin with this is the day that the United Nations was established in 1945. Most people are unaware of the price that was paid for this organization. Meeting with Churchill and Stalin on the Black Sea, Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave away Eastern Europe to the Russians in exchange for their cooperation to start the United Nations. What gall these men possessed! What a total disregard for human rights! These people would not be free until 1989 when communism fell. During that time the Russians would rape their countryside and despoil their land with pollution. In the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, the Russians would attempt to put to death or ship to Siberia all the intelligenstia. Thousands of teachers and doctors just disappeared in the vast wasteland of Siberia. Christian leaders faced similar fates. So when I think of the United Nations I can only think of how it started.

Beyond that the United Nations has been a major financial burden to the United States. Many of the countries included in it do very little, if anything for support. I would hope that some brave politician would lead a campaign to send the whole thing to Siberia.

On a lighter note, the 40 hour workweek went into effect on this day in 1938.

On a sadder note, this was the day before Black Thursday in 1929 when the stock market fell in a catastrophic fashion and we dived into the Great Depression. On this day nearly 13 million shares of stocks were traded.

In 1922 Benito Mussolini began his rise to power. Not good news.

But also on this day in 1861 the first transcontinental telegraph message was sent in the United States which signalled the end of the Pony Express.