International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, Mutts and More

You may recall the song from your childhood: "John Brown's body lies a mouldering in the grave...."

Our crack research staff assures us that the song, John Brown's Body, came before Julia Ward Howe wrote the lyrics to The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Anyway, John Brown's body began mouldering in the grave on this date in 1859, when he was hanged following his convictions for murder, conspiracy to incite a slave revolt, and treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia, all these charges arising from John Brown's raid on the armory at Harpers Ferry in October 1859.

The United Nations recognizes today as The International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, but our crack research staff was unable to confirm that John Brown's hanging inspired the U.N. to pick December 2 as the date for this observance.

Today is also National Mutt Day and National Fritters Day.

Enron filed for bankruptcy on this date in 2001. Believe it or not, kids, there was a time when corporate criminals were actually jailed for their financial crimes. As opposed, say, to the billionaire bankers who took the economy into the Great Recession in 2007 and who all still roam free.

Try not to be bitter.

And, finally, on this day in 1804, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French. So much for the French Revolution.