Today marks the anniversary of two wars and one battle in which brave people fought for freedom

Hundreds of interesting things have happened on this day over the centuries.  Three, however, deserve our attention because, if we were smart, we’d be girding our loins for war right now.

In 1775, Americans fought the Battles at Lexington and Concord.

In 1861, Abraham Lincoln ordered the blockade of Confederate ports, effectively beginning the Civil War.

In 1943, starved, diseased, demoralized Jews rose up against the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto in one of the most heroically fought battles in WWII (or maybe ever).  Leon Uris wrote a stirring description of this heroic, tragic uprising in Mila 18.

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising