May 21, 2011

On this date in 1674, the nobility elected John Sobieski (alternately called Jan III Sobieski or Sobieski III: This Time It’s John) King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. Which was a pretty good move on their part since a couple of years later he rode down to the Battle of Vienna and SAVED WESTERN CIVILIZATION. Sobieski himself wrote “All the common people kissed my hands, my feet, my clothes; others only touched me, saying: ‘Ah, let us kiss so valiant a hand!’” and then he said “I had to burn my clothes and wash my hands and feet in boiling water, man. ‘Cause it turns out that all the common people have all the common dirt. Jeepers.”

It’s Independence Day in Montenegro! Go black mountain, go! Here is their flag, which is like the Albanian flag if it were designed by humans instead of unholy demons: http://www.montenegromap.net/images/flag_of_montenegro_big.jpg