This Day in History May 13

May 13

1637 Cardinal Richelieu of France creates the table knife
1787 Arthur Phillip sets sails with 11 ships of criminals to Botany Bay
1828 US passes Tariff of Abominations
1846 US declares war on M?xico, 2 months after fighting begins
1864 Atlanta Campaign-Battle of Resaca GA
1862 USS Planter, a steamer and gunship, steals through Confederate lines and is passed to the Union
1865 South Brownsville TX (Palmito Ranch) Final engagement of Civil War
1880 In Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway
1884 Institute for Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is founded
1913 1st 4 engine aircraft built & flown (Igor Sikorsky-Russia)
1918 1st US airmail stamps issued (24?)
1940 British bomb factory at Breda
1940 German breakthrough at Grebbelinie
1942 Helicopter makes its 1st cross-country flight
1943 German & Italian forces in Africa surrender
1943 German occupiers confiscate all radios
1945 US troops conquer Dakeshi Okinawa
1949 1st British-produced jet bomber, Canberra, makes its 1st test flight
1950 Diner's Club issues its 1st credit cards
1960 1st launch of Delta satellite launching vehicle; it failed
1985 Philadelphia Police bomb a house held by group "Move"
1992 3 astronauts simultaneous walked in space for the 1st time

It was Cardinal Richelieu who complained to King Louis XIII of a dinner guest picking his teeth at the table with a dagger. Everyone carried a knife at that time, for utility, protection and if you couldn't afford a table set, for eating. The idea of setting out pointed knives only for table use was a fairly new idea; as was the fork. This picking incident so disturbed the Cardinal that he blunted his own table knife. This started a new fashion in knives and in 1669, King Louis the XIV forbid French cutlers from making pointed dinner knives and they are all blunt to this day.