This is the warning.

There is a question.

It's about history.

We get fuzzy on the dates in the years when things occur.

You think about, for example, the Battle of Yorktown,

where American independence was won.

What year was it?

1781, 1783, 1785. Well, it was a long time ago, right?

And when things are a long time ago, it's understandable. We lose track of the year, sometimes even the decade.

And so on that edge, things get blurry. Yorktown, by the way, was in 1781.

And this is important because that year, filled with trial and tribulation, just like the

year of 1942, is exactly the same length as this year.

Same number of days, same number of hours, and every day.

And so let's turn the clock way back. Rome was a republic, and then it wasn't. But what was the instant that Rome went from Republic to Empire?

When did the Republic fall?

What was the moment?

The instant.

Today, the hour.

We don't even necessarily recall precisely in the common space, the century properly.

But what happened was the collapse of the Senate. And so in that contemporary

moment, there would have been an instant of recognition, though not broadcast around the world,

obviously, on a signal carried by satellites orbiting in space to thousands or millions,

...