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      Welcome!   03/05/2016

      Welcome, everyone, to the new 910CMX Community Forums. I'm still working on getting them running, so things may change.  If you're a 910 Comic creator and need your forum recreated, let me know and I'll get on it right away.  I'll do my best to make this new place as fun as the last one!
Illjwamh

This Day In History

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9 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

She (Helen Keller) was not a communist but a member of the Socialist Party.

Unfortunately, those who had power in the United States at the time worked very hard to make sure that the average American was unaware of the difference.

It didn't help that the most powerful Communist country called itself "Socialist".

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June 09

411 BC – The Athenian coup succeeds, forming a short-lived oligarchy.  It is so inconvenient when the wealthy and influential of a society need to depose the nominal government they had backed and actually do the administrating themselves.

AD 53 – The Roman emperor Nero marries Claudia Octavia.  A Daughter of Emperor Claudius and Step-Sister to Nero.  I'm sure they will be happy for a long, long time...

AD 68 – Nero commits suicide.  That is one way to ensure you no longer forget your wedding anniversary.  This ends the Julio-Claudian dynasty and starting the civil war known as the Year of the Four Emperors.  None of the succeeding Caesari or Augusti were directly related to Julius Caesar or Octavius Augustus.  This is terribly convenient when it comes time to depose future emperors because even if the guy claiming the throne isn't a descendant of Julius, neither was the guy he stabbed in the back, and there are no "Rightful" heirs waiting in the wings.

1815 – End of the Congress of Vienna: The new European political situation is set.  Redrawing all those maps after Napoleon's exercises had become tiresome...

1815 – Luxembourg declares independence from the French Empire.  C'mon guys.  Can't you at least let the ink dry before you start changing things again?

1923 – Bulgaria's military takes over the government in a coup.  Did they learn nothing from Athens?

1930 – A Chicago Tribune reporter, Jake Lingle, is killed during rush hour at the Illinois Central train station by Leo Vincent Brothers, allegedly over a $100,000 gambling debt owed to Al Capone.  A Chicago Tribune reporter?  Didn't Mr Lingle read what his own paper had been writing about Al Capone?

1934 – Donald Duck makes his debut in The Wise Little Hen.  Despite the popularity of the character, almost every theatre showing the film requires men in the audience to wear pants.

1954 – Joseph Welch, special counsel for the United States Army, lashes out at Senator Joseph McCarthy during hearings on whether Communism has infiltrated the Army giving McCarthy the famous rebuke, "You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?" It turns out, No, McCarthy did not have a sense of decency.

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On June 10 in History:

323 BCE - Alexander the Great, one of the most successful military and political leaders of all time, and one of the most influential individuals in all of human history, dies of either a fever or a tummy ache.

1190 - While leading an army to Jerusalem, Frederick Barbarossa drowns in a river. A number of Crusaders, who don't believe in omens or anything, suddenly remember something very important they need to do back home.

1329 - The Byzantines lose the Battle of Pelekanon, essentially abandoning their remaining Anatolian holdings to the Ottomans. This doesn't even count as historical foreshadowing anymore; even the most inattentive observers can see where this is going.

1596 - Bear Island is discovered. Sadly, it is not ruled by an impossibly badass ten year-old girl.

1692 - Bridget Bishop is the first to be executed for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. They knew she was a witch because she often spoke her mind, wore unique clothing, and had the audacity to inherit her husband's property.

1752 - Benjamin Franklin flies a kite in a thunderstorm, and rather than dying in an overly comical fashion as one might expect, he instead confirms an important scientific hypothesis. Some people have all the luck.

1829 - Oxford and Cambridge Universities have their first boat race on the Thames. They would have done it a week before, but someone said they saw a swan on the river and nobody wanted to go near it.

1924 - Italian socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti is kidnapped and killed by Fascists eleven days after speaking out against them in Parliament. Maybe the Italian people missed the red flag because it was too big, thus obscuring the fact that it was a flag and not just a red everything?

1940 - Italy declares war on France and the UK. Adorable. US president FDR denounces the action, but will do nothing.

1957 - The Progressive Conservative party of Canada takes control of the government, despite the fact that "Progressive Conservative" is an oxymoron of the highest order.

1964 - The Civil Rights Act passes the U.S. Senate after a 75 day filibuster. This means that there were actual elected officials so opposed to the idea of civil rights that they were willing to stand for hours on end yammering about nonsense for two and a half months. 'Murica.

1967 - The Six Day War between Israel and Syria ends. Not a moment too soon, either. Otherwise we'd be calling it the Week War, which is open to all kinds of misinterpretation.

2007 - The Sopranos airs its final episode on HBO, causing many people to

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22 minutes ago, Illjwamh said:

Italy declares war on France and the UK. Adorable.

In an amazing display of strategic brilliance, Mussolini and the Italian High Command fail to inform the Italian forces in Africa about this. When British forces subsequently attack them, they are caught completely by surprise and the forces near the Libyan border are swiftly overrun and surrounded by vastly numerically inferior British forces. Many thousands of Italian soldiers are captured without ever having fired a shot. When the time comes to list the great strategic surprise attacks of history, this one will surely hold a special place for coming as a surprise to its own side.

23 minutes ago, Illjwamh said:

2007 - The Sopranos airs its final episode on HBO, causing many people to

To what? To what? I can't handle the suspense. TO WHAT?!?

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On June 11 in History:

1184 BCE - According to Eratosthenes, this is the date Troy is sacked and burned. Seems legit.

1118 - The Prince of Antioch, a dude named Roger from Salerno, captures the town of Azaz from the Seljuk Turks. Another in a great string of victories reclaiming the holy land for Christianity. Nothing can stop them now!

1509 - Henry VIII of England marries Catherine of Aragon. May they have many happy years together.

1748 - Denmark is the first to adopt the now iconic Nordic Cross flag. Every other Nordic country will eventually copy them, trying to be cool.

1776 - The Continental Congress appoints Thomas Jefferson and four other guys nobody remembers to draft a Declaration of Independence for the fledgling United States. They should all fire their publicists.

1919 - Sir Barton is the first horse to win the U.S. Triple Crown, and for the first time I will pretend to care.

1963 - National Guard troops have to be mobilized to tell the Governor of Alabama to get out of the way so that some black kids can go to school. 'Murica.

1963 again - Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức dies from an acute case of setting himself on fire, in protest of the South Vietnamese government's treatment of Buddhists. One has to wonder what they were doing that was worse than setting them on fire.

1979 - After countless iconic on-screen deaths, John Wayne dies one last time for real. Guy had quite a life.

1986 - Shia LaBeouf's first avant-garde performance piece, his own birth, takes place.

2008 - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper officially apologizes to First Nations people for the way they were forcibly and systematically reeducated over a hundred years by government-sanctioned, church-run boarding schools. That and a toonie will get you a box of stale, bitter Timbits.

2010 - The FIFA World Cup kicks off in South Africa, as the rest of the world learns the hard way what a vuvuzela is.

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June 12

910 – Battle of Augsburg: The Hungarians use the Feigned Retreat tactic to defeat the East Frankish army.  This tactic was famous from use by nomadic warriors.  Unfortunately for the Franks, they were led by a teenager known as King Louis the Child.  Perhaps the actual leading of the army should be left to professional soldiers?

1240 – At the instigation of Louis IX of France, an inter-faith debate, known as the Disputation of Paris, starts between a Christian monk and four rabbis.  The monk, himself a converted Jew, convinced himself that the Talmud was insulting to Christianity and offered his own translation of the Talmud as proof to the King and the Pope.  Anecdotes beginning with the phrase "A monk and a rabbi walk into Paris..." do not survive the trial.

1942 – Anne Frank receives a diary for her thirteenth birthday.  Reading another person's diary would never be so depressing.

1964 – Anti-apartheid activist and ANC leader Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison for sabotage in South Africa.  That will certainly end his meddling in South African politics.

1993 – An election takes place in Nigeria, presidential seat won by Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola which is later annulled by the military Government led by Ibrahim Babangida.  But due to a this conflict, a Prince in Nigeria has offered to pay me one million American dollars to help him move his wealth out of his homeland.  All I need to do is send him...

1994 – Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman are murdered outside Simpson's home in Los Angeles. The next sixteen months can only be seen as a textbook lesson in how not to investigate and prosecute crime.

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June 13

313 – The Edict of Milan, signed by Constantine the Great and co-emperor Valerius Licinius is posted in Nicomedia.  This Edict grants religious tolerance to Christians and starts the process of returning property confiscated from Christians to its rightful owners.  The Edict is recorded by different sources with different texts.  But those details aside, polytheistic people like the Romans and Greeks will have no trouble accepting this offshoot Hebrew sect among the many myths and religions observed under the watchful eye of Rome.

823 – Birth of Charles the Bald, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 877)
839 – Birth of Charles the Fat, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 888)  A bit of advice, most countries prefer to number their rulers with similar names rather than assign insulting nicknames.  The Britons, for example, record George III and Edward VIII.  Not George the Insane or Eddy the Impotent.

1525 – Martin Luther marries Katharina von Bora.  Doesn't the Roman Catholic Church normally prohibits their priests from... Oh, Right. He had a disagreement with company policy.

1893 – Grover Cleveland notices a rough spot in his mouth and on July 1 undergoes secret, successful surgery to remove a large, cancerous portion of his jaw; the operation was not revealed to the public until 1917, nine years after the president's death.   In the 1980s, on the other hand, Ronald Regan was required to send a letter to Congress detailing why George HW Bush would be Acting President.  Regan would be unavailable for several hours due to a Colonoscopy and this story was the lead in every paper and on the national news.  The health of the President may be a matter of public concern, but can there be some sort of middle ground between these extremes?

1927 – Aviator Charles Lindbergh receives a ticker tape parade down 5th Avenue in New York City.  One legend states that after the parade the Mayor wanted to throw a party for Lindbergh as big as the one they gave him in Paris.  Including Champaign.  Unfortunately, Prohibition was still in effect in the US.  So to get around this problem, aids from the Mayor's office went to one hundred churches, asking each one to sign a note authorizing the Mayor's office to purchase a case of wine for sacramental purposes.  I didn't know that Champaign was a sacramental wine.

1966 – The United States Supreme Court rules in Miranda v. Arizona that the police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them.  And I won't say anything more about this without a lawyer.

1971 – The New York Times begins publication of the Pentagon Papers.  SPOILER ALERT:  The reasons the President gave congress and the public for going to war are not the actual reasons the President wanted to go to war and the military was engaged in operations that were not reported to the media.

1983 – Pioneer 10 becomes the first man-made object to leave the central Solar System when it passes beyond the orbit of Neptune.  Unfortunately, it did not carry human passengers.

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5 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

1983 – Pioneer 10 becomes the first man-made object to leave the central Solar System when it passes beyond the orbit of Neptune.  Unfortunately, it did not carry human passengers.

Even more unfortunately, it also did not carry any politicians.

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38 minutes ago, Don Edwards said:

Even more unfortunately, it also did not carry any politicians.

Hey! I'd say the rest of the Universe probably appreciates that.

45 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

1966 – The United States Supreme Court rules in Miranda v. Arizona that the police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them.  And I won't say anything more about this without a lawyer.

Do you know Miranda?

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June 14

1381 – Richard II of England meets leaders of Peasants' Revolt at Mile End. The Tower of London is stormed by rebels who enter without resistance.  The revolting peasants forget a legal detail when making their demands of the young king.  Promises made and contracts signed under duress are not binding.  As soon as the mob leaves, every change to the law is reversed.  Welcome to the Political Process, peasants.

1618 – On or about this date, Joris Veseler prints the first Dutch newspaper, Courante uyt Italien, Duytslandt, &c. in Amsterdam.  Apparently the custom of noting the date of publication on the newspaper came about later.

1777 – The Stars and Stripes is adopted by Congress as the Flag of the United States.  They had been fighting British forces for over two years and declared independence almost a year ago.  It was probably time to adopt a flag that didn't include the British Union Jack at this point.

1946 – Birth of Donald Trump.  █ ███ ██ ███ ██ ████ ███ ██ ██ ████ █  ████ ██ ████ █████ ██ You're Fired.

1949 – Albert II, a rhesus monkey, rides a V-2 rocket to an altitude of 134 km (83 mi), thereby becoming the first monkey in space.  Is this what cause the rhesus monkeys to become filled with peanut butter?

1959 – Disneyland Monorail System, the first daily operating monorail system in the Western Hemisphere, opens to the public in Anaheim, California.  A great concept in public transportation, if the public only wants to go back and forth from the park to the hotel.

1966 – The Vatican announces the abolition of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum ("index of prohibited books"), which was originally instituted in 1557.  Cardinal Ottaviani stated in April 1966 there was too much contemporary literature and the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith could not keep up with it.  Does this mean that people actually need to think for themselves when deciding whether or not to believe what they read?  That sounds too dangerous.

Also, June 14 is World Blood Donor Day, so be sure to feed your Vampire.

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June 15

763 BC – Assyrians record a solar eclipse that is later used to fix the chronology of Mesopotamian history.  They just had to include an event that could be verified by outside observers.  Now every archeologist gets to act like some sort of expert on all things Mesopotamian just because they can say "X was N years after the eclipse, therefore it was Y years before another event in ancient Newark..."

1215 – King John of England puts his seal to Magna Carta.  The Walrus disapproves, but the Narwhal seems to agree.

1752 – Benjamin Franklin proves that lightning is electricity (traditional date, the exact date is unknown).  You would think that an old man might remember the exact date he was nearly struck by lightning because he wanted to fly a kite in a storm.

1844 – Charles Goodyear receives a patent for vulcanization.  This is a process to strengthen rubber.  Not a means of applying Leonard Nimoy's make up.

1846 – The Oregon Treaty establishes the 49th parallel as the border between the United States and Canada, from the Rocky Mountains to the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

1859 – Pig War: Ambiguity in the Oregon Treaty leads to the "Northwestern Boundary Dispute" between United States and British/Canadian settlers.  Pigs on small islands that are not clearly in one country or the other?  Meh, there have been flimsier pretexts for war.

1878 – Eadweard Muybridge takes a series of photographs to prove that all four feet of a horse leave the ground when it runs; the study becomes the basis of motion pictures.  This also shows why turtles are not invited to compete at the Kentucky Derby.

1888 – The Year of the Three Emperors.  Crown Prince Wilhelm becomes Kaiser Wilhelm II, the last Emperor of the German Empire,  due to the death of his predecessors Wilhelm I and Frederick III.  What harm could come from perpetuating an image of a grand German empire?

1992 – The United States Supreme Court rules in United States v. Álvarez-Machaín that it is permissible for the United States to forcibly extradite suspects in foreign countries and bring them to the United States for trial, without approval from those other countries.  Is it possible that other countries might want to use the same legal justification against suspects of foreign crimes in US territory?

2012 – Nik Wallenda becomes the first person to successfully tightrope walk directly over Niagara Falls.  This man has a tightrope in his Sarasota back yard and practices during hurricanes.  Is it possible to be completely insane and yet know exactly what you are doing?

2015 – National Beer Day is first observed in the United Kingdom.  As Winston Churchill famously observed, "Most people hate the taste of beer – to begin with. It is, however, a prejudice that many people have been able to overcome."  Why aren't people willing to work as hard at overcoming their other prejudices?

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June 16

1586 – Mary, Queen of Scots, recognizes Philip II of Spain as her heir and successor.  To bad for Phill that no one else with any political power in Britain recognized that plan.  Rumor has it that he wound up as the overnight attendant at a gas station in the American Midwest.

1745 – War of the Austrian Succession: New England colonial troops under the command of William Pepperrell capture the Fortress of Louisbourg in Louisbourg, New France (Old Style date).  Really just interesting to note how Britain was incredibly late to adopt the Gregorian Calendar that the rest of Europe was using.  And if Britain had switched after the American Revolution, we would probably still be using the Julian Calendar in the United States.

1871 – The University Tests Act allows students to enter the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Durham without religious tests (except for those intending to study theology).  The far stricter tests for social class and financial aptitude remain.

1884 – The first purpose-built roller coaster, LaMarcus Adna Thompson's "Switchback Railway", opens in New York's Coney Island amusement park.  Note the designation "Purpose-Built". There had been plenty of wild downhill train rides in the past, but none of those were intended to be thrilling.

1911 – IBM founded as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company in Endicott, New York.  It barely looked like the tool for world domination at that point.

1940 – Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain becomes Chief of State of Vichy France (Chef de l'État Français), and in the process goes from being one of the great heroes of a nation to being one of the most hated men in history.  Sometimes you should decline that offer for a promotion or a new job.

1961 – Rudolf Nureyev defects from the Soviet Union as part of an elaborate plan to one day dance Swine Lake and sing Baby It's Cold Outside with Miss Piggy on the Muppet Show.

1963 – Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space on the Vostok 6 Mission.  No more women would travel to space until Svetlana Savitskaya in 1982 and Sally Ride in 1983.  Perhaps someone with a more thorough aeronautical background can explain why women were not suitable for space flight?

2007 – West Sussex County Council officially recognizes St Richard's Day as Sussex Day.  What will happen now that there is a Duke of Sussex for the first time in 175 years and a Duchess of Sussex for the first time in ever?

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6 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Rumor has it that he wound up as the overnight attendant at a gas station in the American Midwest.

This is false. He is actually a waiter in the same restaurant where Elvis works as a short-order cook.

6 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

What will happen now that there is a Duke of Sussex for the first time in 175 years and a Duchess of Sussex for the first time in ever?

I am sure they will suss it out.

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11 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Really just interesting to note how Britain was incredibly late to adopt the Gregorian Calendar that the rest of Europe was using.  And if Britain had switched after the American Revolution, we would probably still be using the Julian Calendar in the United States.

They were hardly the only ones.  Heck, Greece didn't make the change until 1923, and Turkey 1926!

11 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

1871 – The University Tests Act allows students to enter the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Durham without religious tests (except for those intending to study theology).  The far stricter tests for social class and financial aptitude remain.

In America at least, big, prestigious universities like Harvard, Princeton, and Yale have accumulated enough endowments that worthy students can often attend for less than a state school would cost them.  The trouble these days is getting that info to the kids and their counselors so they even apply, instead of just assuming they can't afford it.

11 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

1961 – Rudolf Nureyev defects from the Soviet Union as part of an elaborate plan to one day dance Swine Lake and sing Baby It's Cold Outside with Miss Piggy on the Muppet Show.

And Mikhail Baryshnikov had always dreamed of dancing with Gregory Hines....

11 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

1963 – Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space on the Vostok 6 Mission.  No more women would travel to space until Svetlana Savitskaya in 1982 and Sally Ride in 1983.  Perhaps someone with a more thorough aeronautical background can explain why women were not suitable for space flight?

They may actually have used anatomy as an excuse, as it's slightly less difficult to design, ah, facilities, that accomodate plumbing which gives you a handy protruding spigot to attach to.  Also all the best female pilots were civilians, due to the catch-22 of the military not allowing women to fly their precious planes, and thus women not having the experience or track record flying jets to qualify in the early days when being a military test pilot was mandatory.  Never mind that women were good enough pilots to do the stunts in Hollywood movies, or even teach those male pilots how to fly in the first place....

4 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

This is false. He is actually a waiter in the same restaurant where Elvis works as a short-order cook.

Elvis retired from that job years ago.  He works in Vegas as an Elvis impersonator now.

4 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

I am sure they will suss it out.

*looks around for /me*

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June 17

653 – Pope Martin I is arrested in the Lateran Palace before being taken to Constantinople and tried for high treason.  The man had the audacity to get himself elected as Pope by the Cardinals without also getting permission from the Byzantine Emperor.

1397 – The Kalmar Union is formed under the rule of Margaret I of Denmark.  I'm sure these Nordic neighbors will get along famously as a single country.

1462 – Vlad III the Impaler attempts to assassinate Mehmed II (The Night Attack at Târgovişte), forcing him to retreat from Wallachia.  I don't know why Vlad didn't change into a bat to pursue him before he escaped.

1579 – Sir Francis Drake claims a land he calls Nova Albion (modern California) for England.  He wouldn't want it if he knew what the locals would do with it.

1631 – Mumtaz Mahal dies during childbirth. Her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, will spend the next 17 years building her mausoleum, the Taj Mahal.  It's nice, but kind of fragile looking when compared to a pyramid.

1944 – Iceland declares independence from Denmark and becomes a republic.  Can you really declare yourself "Independent" when the American Army is occupying your country while the Nazi German Army is occupying the country from which you are declaring your independence?

1960 – The Nez Perce tribe is awarded $4 million for 7 million acres (28,000 km2) of land undervalued at four cents/acre in the 1863 treaty.  Another 57 cents/acre 97 years later is certainly sufficient compensation.

1972 – Five White House operatives are arrested for burgling the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Hotel, in an attempt by some members of the Republican party to illegally wiretap the opposition.  As an old coach once said "If you think you need to cheat to win, you think you can't win".

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19 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

1397 – The Kalmar Union is formed under the rule of Margaret I of Denmark.  I'm sure these Nordic neighbors will get along famously as a single country.

They did as long as Margrethe the First stayed alive. Among her many talents, she was also an excellent diplomat. But the Union came apart less than a century after her death.

21 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

1462 – Vlad III the Impaler attempts to assassinate Mehmed II (The Night Attack at Târgovişte), forcing him to retreat from Wallachia.  I don't know why Vlad didn't change into a bat to pursue him before he escaped.

He did, but Mehmed used a genie in a magic ring to aid his escape.

21 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

1579 – Sir Francis Drake claims a land he calls Nova Albion (modern California) for England.  He wouldn't want it if he knew what the locals would do with it.

And when he found out that he could sign out any time he wanted but never leave, it was too late.

22 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

1944 – Iceland declares independence from Denmark and becomes a republic.  Can you really declare yourself "Independent" when the American Army is occupying your country while the Nazi German Army is occupying the country from which you are declaring your independence?

Certainly you can. In fact, never a better time. I mean, it's not as if Denmark was in any position to send military forces to put down the rebellion, and even if we had been, I doubt we'd have been able to put any sort of dent into the American forces there at the time.

Plus, you know, Nazis. I am in total sympathy with any country declaring independence from a country full of Nazis.

25 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

1972 – Five White House operatives are arrested for burgling the offices of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Hotel, in an attempt by some members of the Republican party to illegally wiretap the opposition.  As an old coach once said "If you think you need to cheat to win, you think you can't win".

And so the gates opened for a flood of subsequent -gates to harrow American news media whenever anything resembling a scandal appeared. You might call this phenomenon Scandalgate.

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June 18

618 – Li Yuan becomes Emperor Gaozu of Tang, initiating three centuries of Tang dynasty rule over China.  The Soviets may have launched  Sputnik.  The Americans may have gone to the Moon.  But this much Tang means China was the real early leader of the Space Race.

1178 – Five Canterbury monks see what is possibly the Giordano Bruno crater being formed. It is believed that the current oscillations of the Moon's distance from the Earth (on the order of meters) are a result of this collision.  Amazing that the monks at Canterbury were able to see something happen on the moon, yet no one at Canterbury was able to tell if the 1170 assassination of Thomas à Becket was actually ordered by King Henry II.

1778 – American Revolutionary War: British troops abandon Philadelphia.  They got in one little fight and mom got scared.  She said 'You're movin' with your auntie and uncle in Bel Air'.

1815 – Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Waterloo results in the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte by the Duke of Wellington and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher forcing him to abdicate the throne of France for the second and last time.  Just an example of the unfairness of politics.  Louis Capet stuck his neck out for France, and he never got a second chance at the throne.

1858 – Charles Darwin receives a paper from Alfred Russel Wallace that includes nearly identical conclusions about evolution as Darwin's own, prompting Darwin to publish his theory.  Nice theory, Alfred.  Amazing how it matches a theory I already had on my own but had not yet published.

1900 – Empress Dowager Cixi of China orders all foreigners killed, including foreign diplomats and their families.  Later politicians in many countries attempt to make the same populist appeal, but their attempts seem half hearted at best.

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6 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

1900 – Empress Dowager Cixi of China orders all foreigners killed, including foreign diplomats and their families.  Later politicians in many countries attempt to make the same populist appeal, but their attempts seem half hearted at best.

That's the problem wit' 'em foreign parts. They be full o' foreigners.

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18 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

1858 – Charles Darwin receives a paper from Alfred Russel Wallace that includes nearly identical conclusions about evolution as Darwin's own, prompting Darwin to publish his theory.  Nice theory, Alfred.  Amazing how it matches a theory I already had on my own but had not yet published.

In all seriousness, Darwin had oodles of direct observations and notes, and had written a whole book.  There is no way he slapped all that together in the time between seeing the other guy's paper and publishing his own work.  Just a case of parallel development, based on the accumulated current science of all the past history both of them had access to.

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