On this day in ...... 1754, more than 2 decades before the American colonies would declare independence from Britain, Benjamin Franklin published the "Join, or Die" political cartoon at left in his Pennsylvania Gazette. Accompanying an editorial criticizing disunity among the colonies, the cartoon reflected a "supersitition that a snake which had been cut into pieces would come back to life if the pieces were put together before sunset."
... 1593 (415 years ago today),
Chinese troops confronted Japan in Korea. Japan had invaded Korea the year before; it would be another 5 years before it retreated fully from the peninsula (right).
