French Fries

July 13, 1854 was the Battle of Guaymas wherein Mexican forces stopped a so called Filibuster by a freebooter named Gaston de Raousset-Boulbon. Like William Walker this guy was just a  brigand, pirate or freebooter.   Somehow these jackasses came to be called Filibusters:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filibuster (military)

A filibuster or freebooter, in the context of foreign policy, is someone who engages in an (at least nominally) unauthorized military expedition into a foreign country or territory to foment or support a revolution. The term is usually used to describe United States citizens who fomented insurrections in Latin America, particularly in the mid-19th century (Texas, California, Cuba, Nicaragua, Colombia). Filibuster expeditions have also occasionally been used as cover for government-approved deniable operations.

Filibusters are irregular soldiers who normally act without official authority from their own government, and are generally motivated by financial gain, political ideology, or the thrill of adventure. 

What this really means is that they are technically Brigands or Outlaws (homo sacer), so beyond the pale that "every man's hand shall be raised against them". From Roman common law up through the so called laws of warfare, they have no rights under any laws anywhere at any time

Unfortunately, since the forties, they are all too often CIA agents, operatives or assets, US Presidents, and other disreputable people who are nonetheless granted covert protection by the US government and who may even be given overt protection by the US government.

On this day in history:

587 BC – Babylon's siege of Jerusalem ended after the destruction of Solomon's Temple.

1787 – The Continental Congress enacted the Northwest Ordinance setting governing rules for the Northwest Territory. It also established procedures for admitting new states .

1793 – Jean-Paul Marat was assassinated in his bathtub by Charlotte Corday

1830 – The Scottish Church College, was founded by Alexander Duff and Raja Ram Mohan Roy, in Calcutta, India.

1854 – In the Battle of Guaymas, Mexico, General José María Yáñez stopped a freebooter invasion led by Count Gaston de Raousset-Boulbon.

1863 – New York City draft riots: In New York City, opponents of conscription begin three days of rioting which will be later regarded as the worst in United States history.

1878 – Treaty of Berlin: The European powers redraw the map of the Balkans. Serbia, Montenegro and Romania become completely independent of the Ottoman Empire.

1919 – The British airship R34 landed in Norfolk, England, completing the first airship return journey across the Atlantic in 182 hours of flight.

1956 – The first conference on artificial intelligence took place at Dartmouth.

1962 – Harold Macmillan dismissed seven members of his Cabinet

1973 – Alexander Butterfield revealed the existence of a secret Oval Office taping system to investigators for the Senate Watergate Committee.

1985 – The Live Aid benefit concert took place 

1985 – Vice President George H. W. Bush became the Acting President for the day when President Ronald Reagan had surgery to remove polyps from his colon. Sadly, they left his head up there.

2011 – Mumbai was rocked by three bomb blasts during the evening rush hour
.

Born this day in:

100 BC – Julius Caesar, politician and cutlery collector

1527 – John Dee, mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer

1579 – Arthur Dee, physician and chemist

1607 – Wenceslaus Hollar, painter and illustrator

1756 – Thomas Rowlandson, artist and caricaturist

1793 – John Clare, poet and author

1863 – Margaret Murray, archaeologist, anthropologist, historian, and folklorist

1892 – Léo-Pol Morin, pianist, composer, and educator

1900 – George Lewis, clarinet player and songwriter

1908 – Tim Spencer, country & western singer-songwriter and actor

1913 – Dave Garroway, journalist and television personality

1915 – Kaoru Ishikawa, author and educator , quality circles & fishbone diagrams

1918 – Ronald Bladen, painter and sculptor

1918 – Marcia Brown, author and illustrator

1923 – Ashley Bryan, children's book author and illustrator

1928 – Al Rex, musician

1934 – Wole Soyinka, author, poet, and playwright, 

1936 – Albert Ayler, saxophonist and composer

1940 – Paul Prudhomme, chef and author

1942 – Roger McGuinn, singer, songwriter, and guitarist

1946 – Cheech Marin, actor and comedian

1948 – Catherine Breillat, director and screenwriter

1954 – Louise Mandrell, singer, songwriter, and actress

1956 – Mark Mendoza, bass player and songwriter

1960 – Ian Hislop, journalist and screenwriter

1962 – Rhonda Vincent, singer, songwriter, and mandolin player

1964 – Paul Thorn, singer, songwriter, and guitarist

1965 – Eileen Ivers, fiddler

1966 – Gerald Levert, singer,songwriter, producer, and actor (

1974 – Deborah Cox, singer,songwriter, and actress

1984 – Ida Maria, singer, songwriter, and guitarist

1988 – Tulisa, English singer, songwriter, and actress

1989 – Leon Bridges, singer, songwriter, and record producer

Died this day in:

~~ Walt Kuhn

1628 – Robert Shirley, soldier and diplomat

1762 – James Bradley, priest and astronomer

1893 – Young Man Afraid of His Horses, Oglala Lakota chief

1896 – August Kekulé, chemist and academic

1921 – Gabriel Lippmann, physicist and academic, 

1934 – Mary E. Byrd, astronomer and academic

1946 – Alfred Stieglitz, photographer and curator
1949 – Walt Kuhn, painter and academic

1951 – Arnold Schoenberg, composer and painter

1954 – Frida Kahlo, painter and educator

1960 – Joy Davidman, poet and author

1974 – Patrick Blackett, Baron Blackett, physicist and academic, 

1979 – Ludwig Merwart, Austrian painter and illustrator

2003 – Compay Segundo, singer, songwriter, and guitarist

2010 – Manohari Singh, saxophonist and composer

2017 – Liu Xiaobo, literary critic, human rights activist, and philosopher

Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:
It is National French Fries Day.

It is also National French Fry Day (one french fry? who does that?)

Beyond that, it is Gruntled Workers Day, and, coincidentally enough

Fool's Paradise Day

Music goes here, iirc, well, With apologies

Image is public domain

It's an open thread, so do your thing

EDIT: fixed some typos, formatting and grammar