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Illjwamh

This Day In History

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5 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Setting aside the question of gender in athletics, isn't there usually a significant difference in size between jockeys and basketball players?

Well the NBA did have Muggsy Bogues, who probably could have done both sports as well.

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28 November

1582 – In Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway pay a £40 bond for their marriage license.  That is quite a steep price to pay for a teenaged freelance writer and an Avon Lady.

1660 – At Gresham College, it is claimed that twelve men, including Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, and Sir Robert Moray decide to found what is later known as the Royal Society.  However, by their own motto, Nullius in verba.  "Take nobody's word for it."

1895 – The first American automobile race takes place over the 54 miles from Chicago's Jackson Park to Evanston, Illinois. Frank Duryea wins in approximately 10 hours.  Today this is known as "Rush Hour".

1925 – The Grand Ole Opry begins broadcasting in Nashville, Tennessee, as the WSM Barn Dance.  Teatro alla Scala in Milan seems unconcerned by the competition.

1967 – The first pulsar (PSR B1919+21, in the constellation of Vulpecula aka the Fox) was discovered by two astronomers Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Antony Hewish.  Also known as Cambridge Pulsar 1919, the world came to know it as LGM-1 (Little Green Men) because there was speculation that the strong repeating signal may have been an artificial beacon.  Of course today such a designation would not be accepted in a reputable academic journal.  Little Green Men is Sexist, Racist, and Sizest.

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40 pounds? In those days that was more than the yearly income of the lower classes (who tended to get 1-2 shillings per day). I doubt that said lower classes were charged 40 pounds to be allowed to marry.

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6 hours ago, ijuin said:

I doubt that said lower classes were charged 40 pounds to be allowed to marry.

Oh you could be married in England without the license.  The license was to allow you to be married without the official waiting periods.

For some, if they had the money, getting the license was actually a status symbol.

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19 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

1582 – In Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway pay a £40 bond for their marriage license.  That is quite a steep price to pay for a teenaged freelance writer and an Avon Lady.

I just realized you left out something from your November 12th installment

November 12 1982: Anne Hathaway is born, several awards are prepared in advance.

Whoa, exactly 400 years there, does this mean time travel is real?

;)

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29 November

1612 – The Battle of Swally takes place, according to the Julian Calendar.  This relatively small naval battle is historically important as it marked the beginning of the end of Portugal's commercial monopoly over India, and the beginning of Indian Independence the ascent of the English East India Company's presence in India.

1807 – Transfer of the Portuguese Court to Brazil: John VI of Portugal flees Lisbon from advancing Napoleonic forces during the Peninsular War, transferring the Portuguese court to Brazil.  It can be difficult to maintain an Imperial-Colonial relationship when the Monarch in the Colony has no authority in the homeland.

1877 – Thomas Edison demonstrates his phono, phono, phono, phono, phono *SCRATCH*   phonograph for the first time.

1890 – 1st Army - Navy football game at West Point.  Navy 24, Army 0.

1934 – Chicago Bears beat Detroit (19-16) in 1st NFL game broadcast nationally.  The Lion's most celebrated Thanksgiving tradition, losing, is now shared with a national audience.

1935 – Physicist Erwin Schrödinger publishes his famous thought experiment 'Schrödinger's cat'.  Cats seem largely uninterested in the paper.

1961 – Project Mercury: Mercury-Atlas 5 Mission: Enos, a chimpanzee, is launched into space. The spacecraft orbits the Earth twice and splashes down off the coast of Puerto Rico.  Enos leaves his space ship and discovers a world similar to the one he left, except that humans treat apes like pets or laboratory specimens.

1963 – "I Want to Hold Your Hand" single released by the Beatles in the United Kingdom.  The end of all human culture and civilization immediately follows.

1963 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson establishes the Warren Commission to cover up investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

1964 – Roman Catholic Church in US replaces Latin with English.  But is it wise to let people understand what you tell them to believe?

1972 – Co-founder of Atari, Nolan Bushnell releases Pong, the first commercially successful video game, at Andy Capp's Tavern in Sunnyvale, California.  What happened to all the quarters I used to own?

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23 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Of course Time Travel is real.

You really can travel through time.

But only in one direction.

Unless you are able to move faster than the speed of light.  In that case, please contact me yesterday.

I tried to, but circumstances kept conspiring against me.

On 11/28/2018 at 7:26 PM, Scotty said:

Whoa, exactly 400 years there, does this mean time travel is real?

If it wasn't real, why would I feel nostalgic for decades prior to my birth?

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On November 30 in History:

977 - Holy Roman Emperor Otto II gives up on trying to take Paris and starts to go home. Germans vow they will return to take France someday. Someday!

1016 - Death of Edmund Ironside. He is tragically stabbed in his other side.

1667 - Jonathan Swift is born. Fortunately, his family is well off enough that they do not need to eat him.

1718 - King Karl XII of Sweden dies during the Siege of Fredriksten in Norway. I refuse to call him Charles because he was from Sweden and his name was Karl.

1803 - In a dramatic reversal of previous policy, Spanish colonial authorities aim to PREVENT smallpox in their overseas territories, and set out with a bunch of vaccines.

1835 - Mark Twain is born, because he knows the secret of getting ahead is getting started.

1868 - A statue of Karl XII is inaugurated in Stockholm on the 150th anniversary of his death. I'd have gone for his birthday or his coronation day, but you do you, Sweden.

1872 - The first international football match takes place in Glasgow between England and Scotland. That's "international" with quotes and an asterisk.

1939 - Soviet forces invade Finland, but nobody else cares or helps because Stalin isn't Hitler.

1966 - Barbados gains its independence from the UK.

1967 - So does South Yemen.

1998 - Exxon and Mobil merge to form the world's largest corporation. Quoth the ghost of John D. Rockefeller: "Excellent."

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9 hours ago, ChronosCat said:

I tried to, but circumstances kept conspiring against me.

I know the feeling. I tried, too, but the Chron-O-John in my PLUSTARDIS short-circuited and sent me to 1918 and I fell into a trench some idiot had dug. Thankfully the Armistice was in effect so at least I didn’t get shot at.

3 hours ago, Illjwamh said:

On November 30 in History:

1939 - Soviet forces invade Finland, but nobody else cares or helps because Stalin isn't Hitler.

Later that same winter the Finns kick the living crap out of the Soviets, but nobody else cares or helps because Stalin is Stalin.

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On 11/8/2018 at 11:16 AM, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

08 November

1605 – Robert Catesby, ringleader of the Gunpowder Plotters, is killed.  Catesby may have been the ringleader and among the first executed, but the first Guy arrested is the name that lives on in infamous song and story.

I'll have to remember, next Nov 5, to wish people a happy Robert Catesby Day.

Quote

1972 – HBO launches its programming, with the broadcast of the 1971 movie Sometimes a Great Notion, starring Paul Newman and Henry Fonda.  Good news for those who enjoy watching the same movie twenty or more times in a given month, a year or more after its initial theatrical release.

Don't forget the porn.  There was no internet back then, it was either seedy little shops with a fence around the parking lot so people can't see whose car is parked there, or watching the late-night naked people on cable.

On 11/11/2018 at 1:16 PM, Illjwamh said:
On November 11 in History:
 
1620 - The Mayflower Compact is signed in Provincetown Harbor by a bunch of people seeking the religious freedom to impose their religions practices on everyone who lives in or near their settlement.
 
1634 – Irish parliament, under pressure from an Anglican bishop, outlaws buggery. Yes, that term encompasses more than just anal sex. No, don't google it.
 
1869 – The Aboriginal Protection Act in Australia gives the government control over where aboriginal people can live, what jobs they can have, how much they can be paid, whom they can marry, and what will happen to their children.You know, to protect them.
 
1889 – Washington becomes a state, ensuring that anyone who does not live in either it or the national capital will never be certain which one a speaker is talking about. They were going to call it Columbia, but that’s already the name of the federal district, so it was deemed too confusing. No, really.

(Hmm, not letting me separate these like it usually would.  Weird.)

Defining "religious freedom" as "freedom to control which religions are acceptable and which ones aren't" or "freedom to promote my religion while still oppressing other religions we don't like" is still a thing for many Conservatives today.

Didn't try googling, but the Wikipedia article wasn't bad.  Nothing I'd never heard of before, just a much broader umbrella than I'd thought.

Sounds like the Australians were doing something similar to what America has done, especially the "what will happen to their children" part.  There's a reason the official definition of "genocide" includes preventing children from being raised in and taught their culture and language.

For many, many years, the symbol for America was a female figure named Columbia.  Any place you now see Uncle Sam, picture seeing a woman there instead.  It still kinda amazes me how quickly and completely she went from being a symbol of our nation we were proud of and named many places after, to being pretty much forgotten.

On 11/11/2018 at 3:35 PM, Don Edwards said:

Also: the southernmost significant city in Washington is Vancouver. The southernmost significant city directly north of Washington is Vancouver.

I prefer Seacouver.

On 11/12/2018 at 11:00 AM, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

12 November

1970 – The Oregon Highway Division attempts to destroy a rotting beached Sperm whale with explosives, leading to the now infamous "exploding whale" incident.  The explosives expert in charge ordered twenty cases  of dynamite.  Another expert insisted they only needed twenty sticks.  In the analysis of Wikipedia, "The dynamiting of this whale carcass did not go as planned."

My sister, a biologist and professor of anatomy and physiology, once got called out to the site of a deceased whale.  A whole bunch of different scientists and grad students all wanted to do various tests or get various samples as part of their varied research.  There is, of course, a time factor involved, regarding how long specimens will be useful, or indeed, even collectible without self-contained breathing gear or complete anosmia.  It then becomes more and more urgent to find a way to remove a few hundred tons of rotting flesh.  From what I've heard, the goal in Oregon wasn't to "destroy" the whale, but rather to break it up into more manageable-sized pieces.  Where they went wrong was in underestimating just howfar all those pieces would be flung by the explosion.

On 11/16/2018 at 3:25 PM, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

16 November

1272 – While travelling during the Ninth Crusade, Prince Edward becomes King of England upon Henry III of England's death, but he will not return to England for nearly two years to assume the throne.  Because a futile and symbolic military action is far more important that actually administrating a country.

Eh, a whole big country usually needs some version of a bureaucracy to administer it, and that can keep rolling along without the supposed guy in charge.  Sometimes (often?) things work better without him.

On 11/16/2018 at 3:25 PM, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

1491 – An auto-da-fé, held in the Brasero de la Dehesa outside of Ávila, concludes the case of the Holy Child of La Guardia with the public execution of several Jewish and converso suspects.  So the heretics are tortured and humiliated until their guilty souls are purified, and then they are killed so that they can not sin again.

Kill them now so they can't sin in the future?  As the lesbian said to the guy who told her she just hadn't had sex with the right man yet, "Well, you know, that could work for you, too!"

On 11/16/2018 at 3:25 PM, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

1974 – The Arecibo message is broadcast from the Arecibo Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico. It was aimed at the current location of the globular star cluster Messier 13 some 25,000 light years away. The message will reach empty space by the time it finally arrives since the cluster will have changed position.  So we did call.   Is it our fault no one will  be home when the message arrives?

Huh.  Usually, space scientists plan ahead better than that.  Then again, maybe the person in charge of aiming was someone who didn't really want to announce our presence too loudly.....

On 11/16/2018 at 3:25 PM, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

1990 – Pop group Milli Vanilli are stripped of their Grammy Award because the duo did not sing at all on the Girl You Know It's True album. Session musicians had provided all the vocals.  You would think that an organization that called itself the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences might have enough technical expertise to detect a fraud before handing out the highest award.

I always wondered why they didn't just give the award to whoever it was that *did* sing the song.  Someone sang it, so if it's a Grammy-worthy performance, why should what they look like or under what terms they performed change that fact?  Let the anonymous "session musicians" come forward and be recognized!

On 11/17/2018 at 7:42 AM, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

17 November

1933 – The United States recognizes the Soviet Union.  And we thought the US was doing badly on geography.  Next semester, we'll see if the US can identify Brazil on a map of South America.

We don't actually do too badly.

On 11/17/2018 at 7:42 AM, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

1938 – The legend lives on from the Canadians on down of the singer they call Gordon Lightfoot...

You just better include Stan Rogers's birthday, too!

On 11/17/2018 at 7:42 AM, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

1968 – Heidi Bowl.  Viewers of the Raiders–Jets football game in the eastern United States are denied the opportunity to watch its exciting finish when NBC broadcasts Heidi instead, prompting changes to sports broadcasting in the U.S.  To keep it simple, sports now preempt everything else.

Except not always.  When Star Trek: The Next Generation did their season-ending cliffhanger "The Best of Both Worlds", at the start if the next season, we nerds kicked the Bears fans who wanted to watch the big game out of the TV lounge of our dorm.  We had them beat in numbers, and in sheer determination to find out what the heck happened after Commander Riker ordered Worf to fire on Captain Picard!

On 11/17/2018 at 7:42 AM, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

1978 – No amount of retcons, special editions, or other lies can change this fact.  The Star Wars Holiday Special airs on CBS and CTV, receiving negative reception from critics, fans, and even Star Wars creator George Lucas.  Strong with the Force Bea Arthur is.

I have seen it.  I have also seen Highlander II.  They are about on the same level of quality.

Yes, brain cells died.  But only the weak ones!

On 11/21/2018 at 8:48 AM, Illjwamh said:

On Nov. 21 in History:

164 BCE - Judas Maccabeus restores the Temple in Jerusalem, which essentially becomes the first Chanukkah, as everyone knows from the myriad TV specials and nauseatingly prevalent marketing saturation tactics that take place every year.

What, no comment about how the restored Temple will surely stand for all time?

On 11/21/2018 at 8:48 AM, Illjwamh said:

1877 - Thomas Edison reveals his invention of the phonograph, which can both record and play back sound. People in the music industry rail against it, saying it will destroy their livelihoods because no one will want to attend live performances anymore. No, really.

And yet movie theaters still get cranky if you try to record the movie you're watching.

(I actually did record a couple of movies in the theater, years ago.  On audio cassette.  They were something to listen to while running.  They were also the only movies I went to see in the theater more than once.  I think I saw one of them five times.  Yeah, that recording sure cut into their profits, yeah....)

On 11/21/2018 at 8:48 AM, Illjwamh said:

1979 - The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad is attacked and set on fire, killing four Americans. This is treated as a national tragedy and collectively mourned, rather than taking the sensible option of sensationalizing it into a media circus that drags out for over a year with the aim of politically smearing a government official who was not present and only marginally involved at best.

Well, despite all those investigations, they hadn't found anything she actually did to villainize her for.  What else could they do?  Invent things out of wholecloth?  They certainly couldn't demonize her for doing something a whole bunch of them had also done....

On 11/21/2018 at 8:48 AM, Illjwamh said:

1985 - Carly Rae Jepson is born, in spite of the efforts of numerous time travelers from 2012 who are tired of hearing that damn song every bloody place they go.

I had to look up which song she's known for.  I tend to think of this when I hear it.  "Before you came into my life, I missed you so bad...."

On 11/27/2018 at 8:55 AM, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

27 November

1810 – The Berners Street hoax was perpetrated by Theodore Hook in the City of Westminster, London.  Kids, if you think you're being clever by calling for pizza delivery to a neighbor, realize that it has already been done.  Not only done, but done on a far bigger scale than you could ever hope to accomplish.

Wow!  Thank you for sharing that one.  Sort of a great-uncle of the Flash Mob, too.

On 11/27/2018 at 8:55 AM, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

1945 – CARE (then the Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe) was founded to a send CARE Packages of food relief to Europe after World War II.  It seems the cookies my mom sent me in college may have been in mislabeled packages.

Another cool one to learn the background of!

On 11/27/2018 at 8:55 AM, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

1955 – Birth of Bill Nye, (the Science Guy) American engineer, educator, and television host.  His first diaper includes a bow tie.

He got it from Senator Paul Simon, and later passed it on to Matt Smith.

On 11/27/2018 at 8:55 AM, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

1968 – Penny Ann Early became the first woman to play major professional basketball, for the Kentucky Colonels in an ABA game against the Los Angeles Stars.  She is also one of the first women licensed a jockey for Para mutual horse races.  Setting aside the question of gender in athletics, isn't there usually a significant difference in size between jockeys and basketball players?

Smallest professional basketball player ever.  If you can count sitting in the bench, then being put in to make one play and then being put back on the bench, to be playing professionally,  It was really a stunt to call attention to the way she was being treated as a professional jockey.  She got a standing ovation, whether for her courage, her cause, or her miniskirt is hard to say.

More importantly, did she end up with the nickname Penny Annie, and if not, why didn't someone up the ante?

On 11/27/2018 at 8:55 AM, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

1973 – Twenty-fifth Amendment: The United States Senate votes 92–3 to confirm Gerald Ford as Vice President of the United States. (On December 6, the House will confirm him 387–35).  You don't need to run an expensive campaign to reach the White House.  You only need a majority of your friends and colleagues in the Congress to agree that you would be a better replacement for Nixon than Spiro Agnew.

Only person so far to have served as both Vice President and President without being elected to either office.

On 11/27/2018 at 3:58 PM, Scotty said:

Well the NBA did have Muggsy Bogues, who probably could have done both sports as well.

Shortest in the NBA, and at 5' 3" he's tied with Penny for shortest pro ever, but he's not the smallest, she weighed at least twenty pounds less.  :-)

On 11/29/2018 at 7:37 AM, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

29 November

Nope, you missed it.  1949 -- Stan Rogers is born.  Barrett's Privateers steer The Mary Ellen Carter through the Northwest Passage during a White Squall, from Fogarty's Cove to Make And Break Harbor (The Idiot thought it would take Forty-Five Years!).

On 11/29/2018 at 7:37 AM, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

1877 – Thomas Edison demonstrates his phono, phono, phono, phono, phono *SCRATCH*   phonograph for the first time.

Reminds me of the Beloit College Mindset List, sent to all their professors to remind them of all the things they need to keep in mind regarding the incoming freshman class.  Here's the first one, which I saw at the pre-Web time because my sister actually went there.  "They have never owner a record player.  The phrase "you sound like a broken record" means nothing to them."

On 11/29/2018 at 7:37 AM, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

1972 – Co-founder of Atari, Nolan Bushnell releases Pong, the first commercially successful video game, at Andy Capp's Tavern in Sunnyvale, California.  What happened to all the quarters I used to own?

I remember playing Pong on our TV at home.  It was fun.

 

Thank you so much for keeping this going, it's been fun catching up!

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6 minutes ago, CritterKeeper said:

Hmm, the link for Seacouver didn't link.  Sorry for the double post, but trying to edit that in would be a nightmare.

There are also only a few places between Seattle and Vancouver BC where one is clearly not in an urban area. Or, maybe I should say, twenty years ago there were only a few such places - there are probably even fewer now.

So there could plausibly be a single megalopolis incorporating both metropolitan areas.

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14 minutes ago, Don Edwards said:

There are also only a few places between Seattle and Vancouver BC where one is clearly not in an urban area. Or, maybe I should say, twenty years ago there were only a few such places - there are probably even fewer now.

So there could plausibly be a single megalopolis incorporating both metropolitan areas.

My personal headcanon is that in the version of reality where Immortals exist, the border between the USA and Canada is slightly further to the north in that area, so the unnamed city is actually Vancouver, Washington. (That other, dinky Vancouver in our version of Washington just had to pick a different name.)

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01 December

800 – Charlemagne judges the accusations against Pope Leo III in the Vatican.  Not to give away the verdict, but later that month, Leo would declare the Frankish King to be Emperor.

1420 – Henry V of England enters Paris.  Despite all the pretentions to ruling France that English and British monarchs would claim, right up until France started Guillotining their Kings, this was the closest England and France came to having a unified crown.

1824 – United States presidential election, 1824: Since no candidate received a majority of the electoral college votes, the House of Representatives must decide the winner per the Twelfth Amendment to the US Constitution.  Imagine, candidates who fail to win a majority, or even a plurality, of votes could become President.  We should be grateful that this kind of mess is no longer a concern in America.

1887 – "Study in Scarlet", the first story featuring Sherlock Holmes appears in print.  Did Watson ever find out what school Holmes attended?

1887 – A Sino-Portuguese treaty recognizes Portugal's control of Macao.  The story of Macao is a textbook example of China's troubled past with a major European colonial power.  But it is so often ignored by those who prefer to tell the story of Hong Kong.  Would "The Man With The Golden Gun" have been any worse if some of Roger Moore's fight and romance scenes had been shot in Macao instead of Hong Kong?

1896 – The State of New York begins issuing certificates to accountants qualified to work for the public.  Thus beginning the era of Certified Public Accountants.

1918 – Transylvania unites with Romania, thus concluding the Great Union.  Romania, Transylvania could not have harmed you if you had not invited him.

1918 – The Kingdom of Iceland becomes a sovereign state, yet remains a part of the Danish kingdom.  …  The concept of Sovereignty was surprisingly flexible in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

1929 Game of Bingo invented by Edwin S Lowe.  Thus ends the cultural history of Florida.

1941 – World War II: Emperor Hirohito of Japan gives the final approval to initiate war against the United States.  One might wonder if, at this point, the Emperor could have stopped the fleet that was already underway.

1971 John Lennon and Yoko Ono release "Happy Xmas (War is Over)", just in case you were wondering exactly how long that song has been stuck in your head.

1982 "Thriller", 6th studio album by Michael Jackson is released (Grammy Award Album of the Year 1984, best-selling album of all time, Billboard Album of the Year 1983) and musical immortality for Vincent Price.

1990 – Channel Tunnel sections started from the United Kingdom and France meet 40 meters beneath the seabed.  Corporals Newkirk and LeBeau are thoroughly unimpressed.  They could have tunneled twice as far in half the time while Colonel Klink and Sergeant Schultz remained blissfully unaware.

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2 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

01 December.

1918 – Transylvania unites with Romania, thus concluding the Great Union.  Romania, Transylvania could not have harmed you if you had not invited him.

 

If they hadn’t invited Transylvania, they would have offended Dracula. And they had clearly seen the Netflix version of Castlevania and badly wanted to avoid giving him offence.

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02 December

1697 – The current St Paul's Cathedral, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, is consecrated in London after the Old St Paul's was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666.  This is, perhaps, the fifth large Christian Church to stand on the site.  And it may have been preceded by any number of ancient pagan structures including, according to some antiquarians, a Roman Temple to Diana.  And thanks to Disney, it is best know as place to feed the birds.

1804 – At Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Napoleon Bonaparte crowns himself Emperor of the French. If you're going to rent out the Cathedral for the ceremony, you could at least let the Arch-Bishop do his job.

1805 – War of the Third Coalition: Battle of Austerlitz: French troops under Napoleon Bonaparte decisively defeat a joint Russo-Austrian force.  Nice way to celebrate your first anniversary.

1823 – Monroe Doctrine: In a State of the Union message, U.S. President James Monroe proclaims American neutrality in future European conflicts, and warns European powers not to interfere in the Americas.  Spoiler:  America does not remain neutral, European powers interfere.

1845 – Manifest destiny: In a State of the Union message, U.S. President James K. Polk proposes that the United States should aggressively expand into the West.  And the US does expand aggressively, at least until it hits the Pacific.  There have been some wars and lots of battles in the Pacific and Asia since then, but the US has only controlled some small (relative to the size of the Pacific) islands since then.

1848 – Franz Joseph I becomes Emperor of Austria.  Must be a good day to become Emperor.

1851 – French President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte overthrows the Second Republic.  I think we all know where this one is going.

1852 – Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte becomes Emperor of the French as Napoleon III.  What a surprise.

1859 – Militant abolitionist leader John Brown is hanged for his October 16 raid on Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.  John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave,
His soul's marching on.

1865 – Alabama ratifies 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, followed by North Carolina then Georgia, and U.S. slaves were legally free within two weeks.  Certainly no deliberate symbolism in making the heart of the confederacy enact the decisive legislation ending slavery constitutionally.

1867 – At Tremont Temple in Boston, British author Charles Dickens gives his first public reading of his second, and final, speaking tour in the United States.  By the end of the tour, he was living on Champaign and eggs blended in sherry.  He left America barely escaping a Federal Tax Lien against the proceeds of his lecture tour.

1942 – World War II: During the Manhattan Project, at the University of Chicago, a team led by Enrico Fermi initiates the first artificial self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.  This takes place under the football stadium.  The university would not field another football team until 1969.

1954 – Cold War: The United States Senate votes 65 to 22 to censure Joseph McCarthy for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute".  Mr McCarthy, are you now or have you ever been a member of the United States Senate?

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On 11/30/2018 at 10:54 PM, CritterKeeper said:

Reminds me of the Beloit College Mindset List, sent to all their professors to remind them of all the things they need to keep in mind regarding the incoming freshman class.  Here's the first one, which I saw at the pre-Web time because my sister actually went there.  "They have never owner a record player.  The phrase "you sound like a broken record" means nothing to them."

Ironically, records are making a bit of a comeback these days.

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03 December

1775 – The USS Alfred becomes the first vessel to fly the Grand Union Flag (the precursor to the Stars and Stripes); the flag is hoisted by John Paul Jones.  And we are really supposed to believe that the fact that the flag for the rebellion was nearly identical to the flag of the East India Company is strictly a coincidence.

1910 – Modern neon lighting is first demonstrated by Georges Claude at the Paris Motor Show.  Delegates from Las Vegas and Tokyo seem particularly enamored.

1919 – After nearly 20 years of planning and construction, including two collapses causing 89 deaths, the Quebec Bridge opens to traffic.  Next time, chose your lead engineer based on engineering skills, not political connections.  And when the subordinate engineers raise concerns, don't dismiss them (concerns or engineers).

1927 – Putting Pants on Philip, the first Laurel and Hardy film, is released.  Turns out that the secret to comedy isn't timing or topic.  It's the bowler hat.  Everything is funnier in a Derby.

1960 – The musical Camelot debuts at the Majestic Theatre on Broadway. While many in the audience go ape for Roddy McDowall's performance as Mordred, the role is never truly perfected until a certain displaced Pharaoh makes the part his own in a rural Michigan community theatre production.

1964 – Free Speech Movement: After the University of California Regents decide to forbid protests on UC property, Students take over the administration building at UC Berkley and stage a sit-in.  Who would have thought that the students would do exactly what the Regents told them not to do?   Police arrest over 800 students at the University of California, Berkeley.

1968 – NBC airs the television special, "Singer Presents Elvis", considered to be his "comeback" performance.  The artist and his audience were ready for a return to music after the first bad film.  It took Colonel Tom Parker seven years of bad films before he got the message.

1979 – In Cincinnati, 11 fans are suffocated in a crush for seats on the concourse outside Riverfront Coliseum before a Who concert.  Why does it take a tragedy to remind civilized people that civilized people will not always behave like civilized people?

1989 – Cold War: In a meeting off the coast of Malta, U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev release statements indicating that the Cold War between NATO and the Soviet Union may be coming to an end.  Dasvidaniya Soviet Union.  We didn't appreciate what we had with you until you were gone.

1992 – A test engineer for Sema Group uses a personal computer to send the world's first text message via the Vodafone network to the phone of a colleague.  And the ability to spell becomes irrelevant.

1994 – The PlayStation developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment was released in Japan.  Meanwhile, my Odyssey II from Magnavox just kept collecting more dust in the corner.

1999 – NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander moments before the spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere.  THEY won't tell you the real reason is because of global warning and the melting of Earth's polar ice caps, Santa Clause was forced to relocate to the North Pole of Mars.  To preserve his privacy, the NASA probe was shot down by a Surface-to-Air Reindeer.

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04 December

771 – Austrasian king Carloman I dies, leaving his brother Charlemagne king of the now complete Frankish Kingdom.

1154 – Englishman Nicholas Breakspear is elected Pope Adrian IV. The only man from England to become pontiff, although perhaps not the only person from England to become Bishop of Rome.  His family, until recent years, had brewed beer in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.

1783 – At Fraunces Tavern in New York City, U.S. General George Washington bids farewell to his officers.  At least he thought he was retiring.  But as the Godfather of his country, "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in".

1875 – Notorious New York City politician Boss Tweed escapes from prison; he is later recaptured in Spain.  He will be identified by a Spanish Customs worker based on a Thomas Nast cartoon.

1909 – In Canadian football, the First Grey Cup game is played. The University of Toronto Varsity Blues defeat the Toronto Parkdale Canoe Club, 26–6.  And in Hockey, The Montreal Canadiens ice hockey club is founded.  It is now the oldest surviving professional hockey franchise in the world.  Strangely, neither involve competitive apology as an event, eh.

1918 – Woodrow Wilson becomes the first US President to go to Europe while in office when he sails for the World War I peace talks in Versailles.  This went well, except that the winning European powers would not head his warning against continuing to punish Germany after the war as the North did to the South after the US Civil war, and the US Senate would not agree to US participation in the League of Nations.  But other than that, Wilson's trip was completely successful.

1945 – By a vote of 65–7, the United States Senate approves United States participation in the United Nations. (The UN had been established on October 24, 1945.)  Someone was finally able to explain Wilson's plan in a way the Senate would understand.

1954 – The first Burger King is opened in Miami, Florida.  America's true royalty ascends to the throne.

1956 – The Million Dollar Quartet (Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash) get together at Sun Studio for the first and last time.  Future gatherings of the biggest names in Pop, Rock, and Country would generally be associated with charity benefits or Hee-Haw.

1961 – The Museum of Modern Art displays Matisse's Le Bateau.  It would be 47 days until someone noticed that it is upside down.

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On December 5 in History:

63 BCE - Cicero publicly trashes Catiline for the fourth and final time. He's not allowed to voice his opinion on sentencing, but nobody unable to subtly hint at execution without outright saying it could ever be made Roman consul.

1492 - Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to set foot on the island of Hispaniola. If the natives there had been more like the North Sentinalese, history would be very different.

1496 - Under pressure from Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, King Manuel I of Portugal issues a decree for the expulsion of all heretics from his realm so he can marry their daughter. And by "heretics", he of course means Jews. The power of boners is strong.

1782 - Future 8th U.S. president Martin van Buren is born an American citizen, the first president to be so. Don't worry, this doesn't mean the first seven don't count.

1875 - Sir Arthur Currie is born in Napperton, Ontario. Bet you didn't know one of the greatest generals of WWI was Canadian, did you? Unless you're Canadian. Then you probably knew.

1901 - Eventual overlord of all things the light touches, Walter Elias Disney, is born.

1933 - The U.S. government decides that asking people to endure the Great Depression without alcohol is unreasonable, and amends the Constitution accordingly.

1955 - Black people in Montgomery, Alabama stop taking the bus. White city authorities are outraged by their audacity.

2004 - Same-sex couples in the U.K. can legally and officially have equal rights and privileges as married couples, just separate from marriage and called something else. Same difference, right?

2013 - Death of Nelson Mandela. Even the vuvuzelas fall silent this day.

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