It’s the Statue of Liberty’s Birthday! Remember the Time She Punched an Angry Ninja Midget in the Face? (VIDEO)

Strap yourselves in, fans of rather nerdly historical facts about quintessentially American monuments (which is everybody, naturally)! How's this for both barrels from the Shotgun of Awesome: on this day in 1884, the Statue of Liberty's cornerstone was laid on Liberty Island. Which makes today her hundred-and-twenty-ninth birthday.

Y'know, kinda sorta. If you squint a little. But we won't get pernickety about the fact that she was stranded in France for some time until New Yorkers got their shit together and completed the pedestal. (Despite the fact that the monument was a gift to the U.S, those canny French left the construction of/bill for that part to the gift-ees. As sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi commented at the time, "A pedestal? Balls tothat.") This is her birthday, right here. We have spoken.

Today, as we all know, the Statue couldn't be a greater symbol of American-ness. Short, perhaps, of a sound system and complex jaw hydraulics being installed into the mouth, so as to enable it to boom USA! USA! USA! during important sporting events. If that wasn't a sufficiently trippy concept, here's our gaming tribute to Lady Liberty: her greatest cameo appearance ever, in Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2. Possessed, all kinds of pissed off and desperate to crush your gonads into Spam, the badassery is strong with this clip from Youtuber XXRyuujin.