Awash in Anniversaries

As I mentioned yesterday, and as you've most likely seen elsewhere, today is the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's orbital flight around the earth. (Today's APOD is a beautiful salute to that accomplishment) However, there are a slew of others coming across my radar:

• It's the 30th anniversary of the first shuttle flight... kind of mind boggling that it was only 20 years from the first manned space flight to the shuttle. And 30 years later, we're still using the shuttle. NASA today also announced the future homes of the soon-to-be retired shuttle fleet.
  
• It's the 150th anniversary of the shelling of Fort Sumpter, and the opening ceremonies for the Civil War.
• Five years ago today, Mitt "Mittens" AKA "Willard" Romney signed ObamaCare RomneyCare The Massachusetts Health Care Bill into law. And hasn't stopped running away from it since.
• 113 years ago, Marie Curie announced her discoveries relating to radioactivity.
• 66 years ago, Franklin Roosevelt died, leaving his VP Harry Truman the task of ending WWII.
• Finally, 200 years ago today, a team from John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company landed on the southern shore of the mouth of the Columbia River to establish a trading post; the community that grew up around the site is now called Astoria, Oregon. No biggie, right? Well, oddly, for me at least, this may be the most important item on the list. Money quote:

  "Without John Jacob Astor sending the party to establish a trade outpost in 1811, Oregon, Washington and Idaho would very likely be part of Canada today. The group he sent beat a group of Canadians by about a month."