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Illjwamh

This Day In History

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On 7/20/2018 at 0:43 PM, Illjwamh said:

1969 - Neil Armstrong botches a simple and carefully rehearsed line, causing one of the greatest achievements in human history to forever be associated with a phrase that doesn't make any sense.

To be fair, Armstrong has always maintained that he said the "a" but it got lost in the static and transmission to Earth.  I've heard stranger things happen with radio.

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21 July

356 BC – The Second Temple of Artemis in Ephesus is destroyed by Herostratus in a desperate act to gain Herostratic fame through arson.  Ephesus sentenced Herostratus to death and forbade anyone to mention the name, Herostratus.  However, historian Theopompus would record the name Herostratus so that everyone would know that when the Second Temple of Artemis at Ephesus was destroyed about the time Alexander the Great was born, it was because of an arsonist named Herostratus.

1545 – The first landing of French troops on the coast of the Isle of Wight during the French invasion of the Isle of Wight.  Because without French troops landing on the Isle of Wight, there really wouldn't be a French invasion of the Isle of Wight.

1816 – Birth of Paul Reuter, German-English journalist, founded Reuters.  Someone should figure out a way to get this news out to the whole world.

1831 – Inauguration of Leopold I of Belgium, first king of the Belgians.  I waffled on whether or not to include this.

1865 – In the market square of Springfield, Missouri, Wild Bill Hickok shoots and kills Davis Tutt in what is regarded as the first western showdown.  So any "Western" you might encounter that features a "Showdown" before the end of the US Civil War is historically inaccurate.

1873 – At Adair, Iowa, Jesse James and the James–Younger Gang pull off the first successful train robbery in the American Old West.  So any "Western" you might encounter that features a "Train Robbery" before Ulysses Grant's second term as President of the US is historically inaccurate.  Sometimes it seems like most of the "Westerns" I've encountered have been historically inaccurate.

1904 – Louis Rigolly, a Frenchman, becomes the first man to break the 100 mph (161 km/h) barrier on land. He drove a 15-liter Gobron-Brillié in Ostend, Belgium.  As a way to celebrate a country's national day, it is at least as practical as bombs bursting in air.

1919 – The dirigible Wingfoot Air Express crashes into the Illinois Trust and Savings Building in Chicago, killing 12 people.  Apparently this wasn't a big enough crash to end commercial airship travel.

1925 – Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes is found guilty of teaching evolution in class and fined $100.  When will teachers learn that politicians answering to the loudest voices in the electorate know how to instruct youth better than professional educators?

1925 – Malcolm Campbell becomes the first man to exceed 150 mph (241 km/h) on land. At Pendine Sands in Wales, he drives Sunbeam 350HP built by Sunbeam at a two-way average speed of 150.33 mph (242 km/h).  Because you wouldn't expect the British to just sit by and let a Frenchman keep that record.

1954 – First Indochina War: The Geneva Conference partitions Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam.  Problem solved.  Nothing more to see here.

1970 – After 11 years of construction, the Aswan High Dam in Egypt is completed.  Ramses gets his temple moved to keep his feet out of the water.  But what about the rest of us?

1973 – In Lillehammer, Norway, Mossad agents kill a waiter whom they mistakenly thought was involved in the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre.  I know you may not believe this, but spilling your coffee does not make your waiter a terrorist.

2011 – The last flight of NASA's Space Shuttle program ends with the landing of Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-135 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.  But this is only a temporary delay in the American Space Program because NASA is ready to go with... with...  Uh, guys?  I think you missed your cue.

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2 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

The first landing of French troops on the coast of the Isle of Wight during the French invasion of the Isle of Wight.  Because without French troops landing on the Isle of Wight, there really wouldn't be a French invasion of the Isle of Wight.

I dunno. They could maybe have invaded in absentia?

2 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Inauguration of Leopold I of Belgium, first king of the Belgians.  I waffled on whether or not to include this.

He was an incredible asshat. Fortunately his shenanigans were exposed by a newspaperman named Samuel Clemens.

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22 July

22/7 Pi Approximation Day, for those of you in the Fraction Faction.

1376 – According to a poem by Robert Browning, this is the day the Pied Piper led the children out of the town of Hamelin.  The Brothers Grimm gave the date as 26 June 1284.  You would think that a tragic event like that would be more definitively recorded.

1587 – Roanoke Colony: A second group of English settlers arrives on Roanoke Island off North Carolina to re-establish the deserted colony.  Because when you don't know why the first colony failed, you should establish a second colony in the same location.

1893 – After admiring the view from the top of Pikes Peak near Colorado Springs, Wellesley professor Katharine Lee Bates writes a poem that would eventually become America the Beautiful.  Eventually.  Halcyon skies and enameled plains would not make the final cut.

1894 – The first ever motor race is held in France between the cities of Paris and Rouen. The fastest finisher was the Comte Jules-Albert de Dion, but the 'official' victory was awarded to Albert Lemaître driving his 3 hp petrol engined Peugeot.  Dion's vehicle was not eligible because it needed a 'stoker'.  Shouldn't someone have told the Comte before the race started?

1916 – A parade is held in San Francisco for Preparedness Day.  An event encouraging people to prepare for America's eventual entry into the global conflict that would become known as the First World War.  To mark the event, antiwar anarchists explode a bomb on Market Street during the parade, killing ten and injuring 40.  Because nothing expresses your opposition to war better than killing.

1962 – Mariner program: Mariner 1 spacecraft flies erratically several minutes after launch and has to be destroyed.  Now how are we doing on the manned spaceflight program?

1997 – The traffic capacity between Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario is doubled by opening a second Blue Water Bridge.  Thus the trip from Chicago to Toronto, without going through Detroit, is now even faster.

2002 – Birth of Prince Felix of Denmark.

2013 – Birth of Prince George of Cambridge.  "Official" or "Observed" birthdays for royals are often held in the summer, supposedly to allow for more pleasant weather during the celebrations.  But these royals were actually born in the summer.  Can they really get by with just one birthday each year?

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14 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

1376 – According to a poem by Robert Browning, this is the day the Pied Piper led the children out of the town of Hamelin.  The Brothers Grimm gave the date as 26 June 1284.  You would think that a tragic event like that would be more definitively recorded.

According to the Wikipedia article, a stained-glass window in the Church of Hamlin was made to memorialize the event around the year 1300; unfortunately it was destroyed in 1660. Later, in 1384 the Hamelin town chronicle states "It is 100 years since our children left." ...So not exactly up to the record-keeping we're used to these days, but enough to say that Mr. Browning's date was incorrect.

Incidentally, the 26 June 1284 date predates the Brothers Grim, first appearing in the Lüneburg manuscript (which dates to around 1440-50).

(It just so happens that I'm planning on writing my own adaptation of the story at some point, so I've started doing a little bit of research into it.)

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23 July

1914 – Austria-Hungary issues a series of demands in an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia demanding Serbia to allow the Austrians to determine who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Serbia accepts all but one of those demands.  There seems to be room for a diplomatic solution to this problem.

1926 – Fox Film buys the patents of the Movietone sound system for recording sound onto film.  What is so wrong with sub titles?

1929 – The Fascist government in Italy bans the use of foreign words.  And it's about time.  All those people speaking Italian just make it frustrating for the rest of us.

1940 – The United States' Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles issues a declaration on the U.S. non-recognition policy of the Soviet annexation and incorporation of three Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.  And in a little over fifty years, this gesture would lead to Gorbachev recognizing the independence of the Baltic States.

1945 – The post-war legal processes against Philippe Pétain begin.  From the Lion of Verdun to the Scapegoat of Vichy.  Coming out of retirement was a bad career move for the Marshal.

1962 – Telstar relays the first publicly transmitted, live trans-Atlantic television program, featuring Walter Cronkite.  And that's the way it is, simultaneously on both coasts.

1967 – Detroit Riots: In Detroit, one of the worst riots in United States history begins on 12th Street in the predominantly African American inner city. It ultimately kills 43 people, injures 342 and burns about 1,400 buildings.  There is a serious problem in Urban America and something needs to be done immediately!

1968 – Glenville shootout: In Cleveland, Ohio, a violent shootout between a Black Militant organization and the Cleveland Police Department occurs. During the shootout, a riot begins and lasts for five days.  There is a serious problem in... Really? Just one year later and half a lake downstream?

1992 – A Vatican commission, led by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, establishes that limiting certain rights of homosexual people and non-married couples is not equivalent to discrimination on grounds of race or gender.  Well isn't that convenient.

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24 July

1567 – Mary, Queen of Scots, is forced to abdicate and replaced by her 1-year-old son James VI.  Some children can be very demanding.  Bu there comes a point when Mom must say, "No!  Wait your turn."

1701 – Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founds the trading post at Fort Pontchartrain, which later becomes the city of Detroit.  Are they still willing to trade for it?

1814 – War of 1812: General Phineas Riall advances toward the Niagara River to halt Jacob Brown's American invaders.  Ferb, I know what we're doing today.  By the way, where's Commodore Perry?

1901 – William Sydney Porter, better known by the Pen Name O. Henry, is released from prison in Columbus, Ohio, after serving three years for embezzlement from a bank.  A man embezzles from a bank, gets caught, and spend three years in prison.  Not much of a twist ending to that short story, Mr Henry.

1915 – The passenger ship SS Eastland capsizes while tied to a dock in the Chicago River. A total of 844 passengers and crew are killed in the largest loss of life disaster from a single shipwreck on the Great Lakes.  There are always risks inherent to sailing.  But to capsize while TIED TO A DOCK?

1929 – The Kellogg–Briand Pact, renouncing war as an instrument of foreign policy, goes into effect (it is first signed in Paris on August 27, 1928, by most leading world powers).  That's it.  No more wars.

1943 – World War II: Operation Gomorrah begins: British and Canadian aeroplanes bomb Hamburg by night, and American planes bomb the city by day. By the end of the operation in November, 9,000 tons of explosives will have killed more than 30,000 people and destroyed 280,000 buildings.  Apparently the 1929 Treaty wasn't quite as effective as hoped.

1950 – Cape Canaveral Air Force Station begins operations with the launch of a Bumper rocket.  Remember, untrained civilians may operate the Bumper Cars at the Carnival.  But only Rocket Scientists should operate Bumper Rockets at Canaveral.

1959 – At the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow, U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev have a "Kitchen Debate".  Resolved, A Salad is the optimal opening course for the evening meal.  For the affirmative, Mr Nixon.  For the negative, or Soup, Mr Khruschev.

1969 – Apollo program: Apollo 11 splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean.  From Florida, they had to fly all the way to the moon before they could take their Pacific Cruise.  But at least they were able to avoid changing flights in Atlanta.

1974 – Watergate scandal: The United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Richard Nixon did not have the authority to withhold subpoenaed White House tapes and they order him to surrender the tapes to the Watergate special prosecutor.  If you don't want your secret recordings used against you, don't make secret recordings.

1998 – Russell Eugene Weston Jr. bursts into the United States Capitol and opens fire killing two police officers. He is later ruled to be incompetent to stand trial.  Almost any layman would say that entering the US Capitol armed and alone while shooting at anything that moves is insane.  So why is does it seem so frustrating when it actually becomes the legal defense?

2001 – Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the last Tsar of Bulgaria when he was a child, is sworn in as Prime Minister of Bulgaria, becoming the first monarch in history to regain political power through democratic election to a different office.  So it can be done.  Maybe those revolutionaries in other countries weren't necessarily wrong to execute the former monarchs after deposing them.

Edited by Pharaoh RutinTutin
Posted before I was finished writing

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10 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

William Sydney Porter, better known by the Pen Name O. Henry, is released from prison in Columbus, Ohio, after serving three years for embezzlement from a bank.  A man embezzles from a bank, gets caught, and spend three years in prison.  Not much of a twist ending to that short story, Mr Henry.

It was actually fairly harsh for financial crimes. There are alleged businessmen out there who will launch huge unsustainable schemes, hide their profits, declare bankruptcy and then start over again, never spending a day in jail. When the banks get tired of lending them money (around the sixth time they declare bankruptcy or so) they switch to money laundering and politics.

Now if he had been a black man trying to sell tobacco without a license, he'd have been jumped by six cops and choked to death instead. Much more fair.

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Just now, The Old Hack said:

It was actually fairly harsh for financial crimes. There are alleged businessmen out there who will launch huge unsustainable schemes, hide their profits, declare bankruptcy and then start over again, never spending a day in jail. When the banks get tired of lending them money (around the sixth time they declare bankruptcy or so) they switch to money laundering and politics.

Now if he had been a black man trying to sell tobacco without a license, he'd have been jumped by six cops and choked to death instead. Much more fair.

It's almost like people were too distracted by something else to focus on making sure history wouldn't repeat itself.

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Just now, The Old Hack said:

History doesn't actually repeat itself. Stupidity does, however.

Well, when people start believing that history is stupid, the stupid parts of history repeats.

It's a feedback loop of stupid.

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Just now, Scotty said:

It's a feedback loop of stupid.

You can omit the history part of that feedback loop. Stupidity feeds into itself without any need for outside interference or encouragement. It is self-sustaining and accelerating in a manner to defy the Laws of Thermodynamics.

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Just now, The Old Hack said:

You can omit the history part of that feedback loop.

Why would I want to omit history? That would only get me caught in the loop.

 

For the record, I'm trying to roll with the satire from your earlier post, if I'm not succeeding, I apologize.

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57 minutes ago, Scotty said:

Why would I want to omit history? That would only get me caught in the loop.

No. You see, this is the sad thing. History isn't stupid in and of itself; it is attempts at retelling past events. But interpretations of history can be stupid or even outright lies. Stupidity feeds into stupidity and lies isolate it from exposure to anything that might mitigate it. In either case, history itself is incidental and only its uses or abuses partake of the process.

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On July 25 in History:

306 - Constantine is proclaimed Roman Emperor by his troops. Now if only he could think of a way to get everyone to support his rule, and tie it to their spiritual beliefs somehow...

864 - In the Edict of Pistres, West Frankish king Charles the Bald decrees that it is no longer allowed to let Vikings raid in his territory. "Why didn't we think of that?" wonder his lords.

1109 - Some dude named Afonso is born. Wait for it...

1137 - Kicking off the prologue to a real-life story even crazier than Game of Thrones, Eleanor of Aquitaine marries the French prince Louis (later "VII of France").

1139 - At the Battle of Ourique, Afonso Henriques does some Reconquisting and afterwards is name the first king of Portugal. Happy birthday, dude!

1261 - Forces of the Nicaean Empire recapture Constantinople, allowing the Imperial family and all administrators to change their letterhead back to "Byzantine".

1603 - James VI of Scotland is crowned James I of England. Thus, he averages out to James III 1/2 of Great Britain.

1755 - British governor Charles Lawrence to Acadians in Nova Scotia: "GTFO." Louisiana: "We'll take 'em! They're gonna have to drop a few syllables, though."

1792 - The Duke of Brunswick, supported by his Austrian and Prussian allies, warns Parisians that if the French royal family is harmed, there will be retaliation against French citizens. The threat works splendidly.

1814 - The Americans attempt to invade Canada but are repulsed. As my good friend Nelson Muntz would say, "Ha, ha!"

1853 - Joaquin Murrieta, a Californio bandit often compared to Robin Hood, is killed by rangers sent to bring him down. Much of his story later became inspiration for the character of Zorro, likely named such because an "M" is much harder to slash onto walls.

1861 - The U.S. Congress officially declares that the Civil War is being fought to preserve the Union, rather than to end slavery. This is frequently pointed to as evidence of the "states' rights" argument by Confederate apologists, whose own leaders had already officially declared multiple times that it was absolutely about wanting to keep their slaves.

1898 - The U.S. takes Puerto Rico from Spain, assuring everyone that they don't plan on doing anything with it under any circumstances.

1917 - Income tax is first introduced as a temporary measure in Canada. Technically, as long as they cancel it before the end of all life as we know it, that'll still be true.

1943 - Italians, having finally had enough of their incompetent, bombastic, strongman fascist leader and his exaggerated posturing accompanied by nigh-incoherent rants, vote him out. Punchline redacted.

1946 - A nuclear weapons test inadvertently creates Spongebob Squarepants.

1969 - Richard Nixon: "Our Asian allies must now be responsible for their own defense. Except you, Japan. And you, South Korea. Look, I'll be straight with you; I just really don't want to be in Vietnam anymore."

1984 - Cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to perform a spacewalk, as we move one step closer to Ralph Kramden's dream.

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On 7/24/2018 at 6:48 PM, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

1915 – The passenger ship SS Eastland capsizes while tied to a dock in the Chicago River. A total of 844 passengers and crew are killed in the largest loss of life disaster from a single shipwreck on the Great Lakes.  There are always risks inherent to sailing.  But to capsize while TIED TO A DOCK?

The Eastland disaster happened shortly after the Titanic sank, and in fact, new rules requiring more lifeboats may have contributed to the problem of the ship being top-heavy.  The ship was supposed to carry 2,572 workers and their famillies to a company picnic in Indiana, and since in those days most workers didn't get any days off, they were looking forward to it.  But, it was a cool, damp day, so many of them went down below, and thus got trapped or were hit or pinned by heavy furniture (pianos, bookcases, wardrobes) when the ship rolled onto its side.  Apparently, too many people crowded onto the side of the ship away from the dock to look out onto the lake, and being top-heavy, the ship rolled over much more easily than it should have.  This was a huge ship, as big as ocean liners of the day (HMS Titanic passenger capacity was 2,435, granted with bigger rooms per passenger as they were on it for longer).  Once it started rolling onto its side, there wasn't much anyone could do to stop it, despite the crew filling ballast tanks when she first started to list.  There are some impressive pictures of hundreds of survivors standing on the side of her hull as she lay sideways in the water, waiting for other ships to come rescue them.

Hey, I've been living in Chicagoland almost two decades now, I've absorbed some of this through osmosis and from all the Geoffrey Baer shows on WTTW!

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The Eastland was known to be top heavy and had a history of listing even before the additional lifeboats were added.

The additional lifeboats did make the problem worse, but the underlying problem was there long before.  The Eastland was an unsafe vessel that was kept in service far too long.

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2 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

The Eastland was known to be top heavy and had a history of listing even before the additional lifeboats were added.

The additional lifeboats did make the problem worse, but the underlying problem was there long before.  The Eastland was an unsafe vessel that was kept in service far too long.

The Vasa was the biggest warship ever built at the time and the pride of the Swedish fleet. When it was launched on August 10, 1628, it made it halfway out of the harbour before a gentle breeze almost made it capsize. It slowly, slowly recovered. Then an actual gust of wind hit it and it rolled so far over that it started to take water in through its open gunports. And that was all she wrote.

On the plus side, being this close to land much of its crew could be rescued. Only fifty-some people actually drowned.

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1529 – Francisco Pizarro González, Spanish conquistador, is appointed governor of Peru.  Please note that this was Governor Pizarro of "Real World" Peru.  Not the Governor of "Bizarro World" Peru.  That guy was an Incan who conquered Spain by giving the Spaniards all of his people's gold and art.  Then he deliberately brought Measles, Small Pox, and Syphilis back to South America for his own people to enjoy.

1745 – The first recorded women's cricket match takes place near Guildford, England.  Ladies on the pitch?  It's just not cricket!

1775 – The Second Continental Congress establishes the agency that would become the United States Postal Service.  Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania is appointed Postmaster General.  Contrary to popular belief, "The Check's in the Mail" is not actually the motto of the agency.

1882 – Premiere of Richard Wagner's opera Parsifal at Bayreuth.  This would be the greatest addition to the body of work around the Legend of the Holy Grail until the revelations of Monty Python.

1891 – France annexes Tahiti.  Because what's the point of an overseas empire if you don't have at least one nice tropical island?

1908 – United States Attorney General Charles Joseph Bonaparte issues an order to immediately staff the Office of the Chief Examiner (later renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation).  Pay attention here.  Charles Joseph Bonaparte, the grandson of Jérôme-Napoléon Bonaparte, King of Westphalia and the youngest brother of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, was made Secretary of the Navy and United States Attorney General by President Theodore Roosevelt.  That means he was in the Line of Succession to the Presidency of the United States  He was at different times in charge of the US Navy and the Department of Justice.  And in the latter post, he creates an office that would become America's premier agency for criminal investigation and law enforcement.

1914 – July Crisis: Edward Grey, the British foreign secretary, proposes that Britain, France, Italy and Germany mediate between Austria-Hungary and Russia.  This would have been a great idea, if anyone had been interested in talking at this point.

1918 – Emmy Noether's paper, which became known as Noether's theorem was presented at Göttingen, Germany, from which conservation laws are deduced for symmetries of angular momentum, linear momentum, and energy.  The First World War is in the final stages and things are about as bad as they can get in Imperial Germany.  But even at this time, a woman can present a paper at a university that fundamentally alters the way the rest of the world understands physics?

1936 – King Edward VIII, in one of his few official duties before he abdicates the throne, officially unveils the Canadian National Vimy Memorial.  The man would be King for only three hundred twenty six days, but found time to go to France?

1947 – Cold War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act of 1947 into United States law creating the Central Intelligence Agency, United States Department of Defense, United States Air Force, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the United States National Security Council.  That should be all the reorganization the American Military needs following WWII.

1948 – U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs Executive Order 9981, desegregating the military of the United States.  Oops, forgot this one last year.

1971 – Launch of Apollo 15 and first use of a Lunar Roving Vehicle.  Because cars on the moon.

2016 – Solar Impulse 2 becomes the first solar-powered aircraft to circumnavigate the Earth.  Although it may have been assisted from a strong thermal (i.e. hot air) updraft in the vicinity of Philadelphia, PA, where the Democratic National Convention nominated Hillary Clinton for President on the same Day.

2017 – June Foray 1917 - 2017.  Rocky the Flying Squirrel has been silenced.

Edited by Pharaoh RutinTutin
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1 hour ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

1918 – Emmy Noether's paper, which became known as Noether's theorem was presented at Göttingen, Germany, from which conservation laws are deduced for symmetries of angular momentum, linear momentum, and energy.  The First World War is in the final stages and things are about as bad as they can get in Imperial Germany.  But even at this time, a woman can present a paper at a university that fundamentally alters the way the rest of the world understands physics?

And not for the first or last time either. Archimedes was hard at work with his theorems when some nameless legionary cut him down against specific orders not to do so.

Performer: "The show must go on."
Mathematician: "Hold my beer."

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8 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

1891 – France annexes Tahiti.  Because what's the point of an overseas empire if you don't have at least one nice tropical island?

Why wouldn't they want Tahiti? It's a magical place.

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27 July

1054 – Siward, Earl of Northumbria invades Scotland and defeats the King for whom the Scottish Play is named somewhere north of the Firth of Forth.  MacDuff would not lay on for several years yet.

1663 – The English Parliament passes the second Navigation Act requiring that all goods bound for the American colonies have to be sent in English ships from English ports.  This seems perfectly reasonable and should in no way make those in the colonies resentful of their distant government.

1694 – A Royal charter is granted to the Bank of England.  Railways through Africa, Dams across the Nile, fleets of ocean Greyhounds, Majestic, self-amortizing canals, Plantations of ripening tea, All from tuppence, prudently fruitfully, frugally invested...

1794 – French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre is arrested after encouraging the execution of more than 17,000 "enemies of the Revolution".  After so much encouragement, monsieur Robespierre should know what to expect next.

1940 – The animated short A Wild Hare is released, introducing the character of Bugs Bunny.  Apparently we are no longer required to determine if the person to whom we are speaking has a terminal degree before asking "What's up, Doc?"

1987 – RMS Titanic Inc. begins the first expedited salvage of wreckage of the RMS Titanic.  No amount of archaeology, however, will recover the career of Leonardo DiCaprio

2018 – The longest lasting Lunar Eclipse of the 21st Century is visible at least in part to much of Asia, Europe, Africa, Antarctica, Australia, and South America.  However North America is excluded from the viewing party.

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28 July

1540 – A very busy day for England's Henry VIII.  First he has Thomas Cromwell executed on charges of treason.  Then Mr VIII marries his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, on the same day.

1794 – French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre and Louis Antoine de Saint-Just are executed by guillotine in Paris, France.  Would-be revolutionaries need to realize that those who start the revolution rarely survive, much less lead, after the revolution.

1868 – The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution is certified, establishing African American citizenship and guaranteeing due process of law.  We'll see how that works out when we check back in about fifty, no, forty nine years...

1914 – In the culmination of the July Crisis, Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.  This will probably remain a localized conflict.

1915 – The United States begins a 19-year occupation of Haiti.  Because somehow this was supposed to keep the fighting in Europe from spreading to the Americas?

1915 – Meanwhile, the same day in America saw a number of notable births.

  • Charles Hard Townes, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate.  Inventor of the MASER.
  • Dick Sprang, American illustrator.  Frequent uncredited "Ghost" artist for Bob Kane and perhaps the single biggest contributor to the golden age look of The Batman.
  • And Frankie Yankovic, because if we don't appreciate the legacy of American polka musicians, who will?

1917 – Forty nine years after the 14th Amendment is certified, the Silent Parade took place in New York City in protest to murders, lynchings, and other violence directed towards African Americans.  Yes, that amendment did work out well.

1932 – U.S. President Herbert Hoover orders the United States Army to forcibly evict the "Bonus Army" of World War I veterans gathered in Washington, D.C.  Hoover's popularity with the American People and history can not, at this point, get much worse.  So why not order the Army to start shooting at veterans?

1939 – The Sutton Hoo helmet is discovered.  And no one believed Horton...

1945 – A U.S. Army B-25 bomber crashes into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building.  But that darn gorilla still won't let go of Fay Wray.

1984 – The 1984 Summer Olympics officially known as the games of the XXIII were opened in Los Angeles.  In the LA Coliseum, 84 pianos play Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue while Ronald Regan recites the same declaration that had been given by others like Queen Elizabeth II in Montréal and Adolph Hitler in Berlin.

1996 – The remains of a prehistoric man are discovered near Kennewick, Washington.  To the shock of absolutely no one, paleontologists refer to the remains as the Kennewick Man.

2012 – World Hepatitis Day.  A Guinness World Record was created when 12,588 people from 20 countries did the Three Wise Monkeys actions to signify the willful ignorance of the disease.  So it is possible to make yourself seen and heard when you see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil.

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