13 December 1642 December 13, 2013 Author: Staff Abel Tasman reaches New Zealand. Famous Words of Inspiration..."We should enact an 'e' tax. Government agents would roam the country looking for stores whose names contained any word that ended in an unnecessary 'e,' such as 'shoppe' or 'olde,' and the owners of these stores would be taxed at a flat rate of $50,000 per year per 'e.' We should also consider an additional $50,000 'ye' tax, so that the owner of a store called 'Ye Olde Shoppe' would have to fork over $150,000 a year. In extreme cases, such as 'Ye Olde Barne Shoppe,' the owner would simply be taken outside and shot." Dave Barry — Click here for more from Dave Barry Related posts: 10 September 1961 10 September 1961 13 December 2003 13 December 1937 16 December 1972 Categories: History Tags: 13 December, 1642