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Illjwamh

This Day In History

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On November 27 in History:
 
176 - Marcus Aurelius gives his son Commodus the rank of Imperator, and makes him the supreme commander of all Roman legions. Rome will come to regret this.
 
511 - Death if Clovis I. Will the Frankish kingdom he knit together survive him, or will it fall back apart? I give it ten years, tops.
 
602 - Emperor Maurice is executed by his usurper, Phocas, after being made to watch the execution of all five of his sons. Both Byzantium and Western Christendom will come to regret this.
 
1096 - At the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II tells all the folks he's spent days rallying up into a frenzy to go and kill some Muslims in the Holy Land. It's on now, boys.
 
1558 - Burmese Crown Prince Mingyi Swa is born. He'll never live to be king, and it's entirely possible I'm including him here because I think his name is cool.
 
1809 - Theodore Hook tricks hundreds of tradesmen, merchants, businessmen, and dignitaries - up to and including the Lord Mayor of London, the Duke of York, and the Archbishop of Canterbury - to descend on the home of Mrs. Tottenham at 54 Berners Street in order to win a bet with his friend that he could turn any house in the city into the Prom Queen.
 
1852 - Death of Ada Lovelace, whom we have largely to thank for the technology allowing you all to read this right now.
 
1896 - Richard Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra is first performed. A group of apes in attendance goes crazy.
 
1940 - Bruce Lee is born. He is already capable of kicking the crap out of everyone else in the room.
 
1942 - Jimi Hendrix is born. Dang, two GOATs who died too young born on the same date? I guess just take care of yourself if you're really talented and today's your birthday; that's all I'm saying.
 
1955 - Bill Nye is born. He's already capable of schooling everyone else in the room. Hang in there, Bill. We need you.
 
1978 - Former San Francisco city supervisor Dan White assassinates current supervisor Harvey Milk, as well as Mayor George Moscone, because he is depressed, which you can tell because he eats a lot of Twinkies. No really, that's what they went with.
 
2006 - The Canadian House of Commons approves a motion declaring the Québécois to be a nation within Canada. Oh great, they're never going to shut up about this.

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7 minutes ago, Illjwamh said:

declaring the Québécois to be a nation within Canada. Oh great, they're never going to shut up about this.

For better or worse, they won't shut up about it in a Language (Creole? Dialect? Accent? Patois?) that is not particularly well known outside Quebec

In a way, this reminds me of a situation in Greece.  When the Ottoman Empire finally died in the early twentieth century and left Greece to be fully controlled by Greeks for the first time in hundreds of years, there was a request from some Greek people directed towards the Greek Orthodox Church asking for The BIble to be translated into modern Greek.  Apparently, multiple generations of foreign occupation caused the language to diverge from the Classical Greek of Antiquity

In Quebec, after Britain took over Canada, the first reaction was to eliminate or suppress Francophone culture.  Eventually, Anglophonic Canada decided it wasn't worth the effort and stopped actively persecuting the Québécois.  But by this time, the French descended language used secretly in Canada was no longer identical to the language of Metropolitan France

Oh well, as long as our Viking Overlords don't demand that we go back to drunk singing with potatoes in our mouths...

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21 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Oh well, as long as our Viking Overlords don't demand that we go back to drunk singing with potatoes in our mouths...

Naw, that is out of date. Nowadays you just have to learn Swedish and then get drunk.

1 hour ago, Illjwamh said:

1852 - Death of Ada Lovelace, whom we have largely to thank for the technology allowing you all to read this right now.

I don't actually think she had alt-Reich trolls in mind, so she shouldn't be blamed for them, I feel.

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2 hours ago, Illjwamh said:

176 - Marcus Aurelius gives his son Commodus the rank of Imperator, and makes him the supreme commander of all Roman legions. Rome will come to regret this.

But things didn't start seriously going down the commodus until he was assassinated. (Which was a fate he shared with at least 22 other Roman emperors.)

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2 hours ago, Illjwamh said:

1852 - Death of Ada Lovelace, whom we have largely to thank for the technology allowing you all to read this right now.

The major contribution of Augusta Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace is often misstated. The first published computer program (instructions for setting up Babbage's Analytical Engine - assuming you have one, which not even Babbage did - for a certain calculation) was printed among her notes on a translation she was doing, but it's unlikely that she originally wrote that program.

On the other hand, the first known mention of use of a computing device for symbol manipulation, rather than mathematical calculation, was definitely written by Lovelace. IMHO that's a bigger contribution.

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49 minutes ago, Don Edwards said:

But things didn't start seriously going down the commodus until he was assassinated. (Which was a fate he shared with at least 22 other Roman emperors.)

And here I thought he got killed by Russel Crowe. :danshiftyeyes:

That's a lot of assassinated emperors. And I don't think you even included Byzantine emperors in that. You'd think that health services eventually started looking more into the root causes of such a serious illness.

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The two most common causes of assassination are "Wearing a crown which someone else REALLY REALLY wants to wear for themselves" and "Pissing off somebody too influential to ignore".

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7 minutes ago, ijuin said:

The two most common causes of assassination are "Wearing a crown which someone else REALLY REALLY wants to wear for themselves" and "Pissing off somebody too influential to ignore".

Hrm. I'm not entirely sure how to inoculate against that.

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Assassination is actually a fiscally responsible way to manage an Empire

First, you don't need to provide for your ruler's retirement
(You might even be able to underwrite the cost of his state funeral by selling ad space and corporate naming rights)

Second, you avoid the need for elaborate succession procedures
If the royal guards allow you to get that close to the current king, then they obviously are willing to accept you as the next king
And if the old king is dead and the king's personal army says that you're the new king, who is going to argue?  (Other than the next guy with a bigger army, but you should have dealt with him before going on your regicide spree)

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21 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

And if the old king is dead and the king's personal army says that you're the new king, who is going to argue?  (Other than the next guy with a bigger army, but you should have dealt with him before going on your regicide spree)

The latter is startlingly common. Especially in the case of a fickle personal army. The Praetorian Guard and the Year of the Four Emperors would be a case in point.

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20 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

The latter is startlingly common. Especially in the case of a fickle personal army. The Praetorian Guard and the Year of the Four Emperors would be a case in point.

Or the Year of the Five Emperors.

Or the Year of the Six Emperors.

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On November 28 in History:
 
1443 - Skanderbeg and his men liberate the town of Krujë and raise the Albanian flag. Ottomans: Eh, we'll stomp him out easily enough. Narrator: They would not.
 
1520 - Ferdinand Magellan's fleet passes through the strait at the southern end of South America. "While we're here, we really ought to come up with a name for it."
 
1785 - The U.S. acknowledges Cherokee lands in modern eastern Tennessee in the Treaty of Hopewell. Lol, crossies, doesn't count.
 
1843 - France and Britain formally recognize the independence and sovereignty of the Kingdom of Hawai'i. The United States does not join them. I'm sure that doesn't mean anything; don't read too much into it.
 
1893 - Women vote for the first time in New Zealand, beating both the U.S. and the U.K. by over twenty years. Sure, but what have you done lately? You know what, don't answer that; it's not going to make us look any better.
 
1912 - Albania declares independence from the Ottoman Empire. The sultan shakes his fist at the sky and shouts, "Skanderbeeeeeeeeg!"
 
1919 - Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor, Viscountess Astor, is the first woman elected to British Parliament (to actually take her seat). "Wow, that's really cool; good for you!" ~New Zealand
 
1921 - Death of `Abdu'l-Bahá, head of the Bahá'í Faith and eldest son of its founder, Bahá'u'lláh. To continue an earlier analogy, think of him as the St. Peter.
 
1943 - To discuss strategy to bring down Hitler, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meet in Tehran with the only world leader worse than Hitler.
 
1960 - Mauritania gains its independence from France. They name themselves after a kingdom from antiquity whose lands were far north of anything they currently control.
 
1962 - Birth of Jon Stewart, who will grow up to have a greater impact on the merging of politics and entertainment than perhaps anyone else alive today. The doctor hands him to his parents and says, "Here he is, your moment of zen."
 
1962 again - Death of Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. She reigned for over 58 years and for most Dutch she's simply always been the monarch. "Cute. Hold my beer." ~Elizabeth II
 
1966 - Michel Micombero overthrows the monarchy of Burundi because he feels they are not committing enough genocide.
 
1975 - East Timor declares independence from Portugal. "Oh thank god, it's somebody else for a change." ~Great Britain
 
1987 - Karen Gillan is born. Her father immediately begins swapping out her organs for artificial parts.
 
1989 - The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia decides it's tired and that fine, other parties can play if they want.
 
1990 - Margaret Thatcher resigns as British Prime Minister. And there was much rejoicing.
 
1991 - South Ossetia declares indpendence from Georgia. No one gets the memo.
 

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1 hour ago, Illjwamh said:

1520 - Ferdinand Magellan's fleet passes through the strait at the southern end of South America. "While we're here, we really ought to come up with a name for it."

The Dire Straits seemed an obvious choice, but finished in a disappointing fourth place.

1 hour ago, Illjwamh said:

1912 - Albania declares independence from the Ottoman Empire. The sultan shakes his fist at the sky and shouts, "Skanderbeeeeeeeeg!"

Doesn't really have the same memetic impact as "KHAAAAAAAAAN!" admittedly.

2 hours ago, Illjwamh said:

1943 - To discuss strategy to bring down Hitler, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meet in Tehran with the only world leader worse than Hitler.

I didn't know Emperor Palpatine was at that meeting.

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On 11/27/2019 at 4:07 PM, Illjwamh said:
On November 27 in History:
 
1852 - Death of Ada Lovelace, whom we have largely to thank for the technology allowing you all to read this right now.

I'm fairly certain that this is not literally true. It seems that the significance of her work was not recognized for what it was until over a century later, when computer science was coming into its own. It is possible though, that early builder/programmers like Alan Turing knew of her work. This, thanks to Charles Babbage, the inventor of the cost overrun. (Not really, he was hardly the first. His major contribution, often underappreciated, was pushing the state of British machining technology forward.)

 

On 11/27/2019 at 4:07 PM, Illjwamh said:
On November 27 in History:
 
2006 - The Canadian House of Commons approves a motion declaring the Québécois to be a nation within Canada. Oh great, they're never going to shut up about this.
 
Le 27 novembre dans l'histoire:
 
2006 - La Chambre des communes du Canada approuve une motion déclarant que les Québécois sont une nation au Canada. Oh génial, ils ne vont jamais se taire à ce sujet.

Fixed it for you.

 

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3 hours ago, Illjwamh said:

Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meet in Tehran with the only world leader worse than Hitler.

When both were active, it would be rather difficult to say with certainty whether Stalin or Hitler was the worse hominid life form

Stalin's reputation had the "benefit" of a decade of operating without Corporal Schicklgruber providing a counterpoint

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3 hours ago, Illjwamh said:
On November 28 in History:
 
1785 - The U.S. acknowledges Cherokee lands in modern eastern Tennessee in the Treaty of Hopewell. Lol, crossies, doesn't count.
 

Yeah, why break a perfect track record?

 

3 hours ago, Illjwamh said:
On November 28 in History:
 
1919 - Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor, Viscountess Astor, is the first woman elected to British Parliament (to actually take her seat). "Wow, that's really cool; good for you!" ~New Zealand
 

"Now fix us some tea."

 

3 hours ago, Illjwamh said:
On November 28 in History:
 
1921 - Death of `Abdu'l-Bahá, head of the Bahá'í Faith and eldest son of its founder, Bahá'u'lláh. To continue an earlier analogy, think of him as the St. Peter.
 

I am surprised Bahá'í was founded this recently. Wow, fairly benign agenda, no wonder they're persecuted.

 

 

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7 hours ago, Illjwamh said:
1943 - To discuss strategy to bring down Hitler, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meet in Tehran with the only world leader worse than Hitler.
 

One thing Stalin had going for him over Hitler was he wasn't in quite as much of a rush to conquer the world.

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Busy day yesterday.
 
On November 29 in History:
 
618 - The Tang under Li Shimin defeat their rival in succeeding the Sui Dynasty, the Qin under Xue Rengao, at the Battle of Qianshuiyuan. There can be only one.
 
1394 - King Yi Seong-gye, founder of the Joseon Dynasty, moves his capital from Kaesong to Hanyang, a city with a bit more Seoul.
 
1777 - Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe becomes the first civilian settlement in Alta California. Man, we've really gotta start shortening these names.
 
1781 - 133 African slaves are thrown overboard from the British slave ship Zong in order to conserve dwindling water supplies and also to collect the insurance money. Killing two birds (and several dozen human beings, I can't stress that enough) with one stone.
 
1807 - Rather that hang around to get conquered by Napoleon, King João VI of Portugal up and moves his court to Brazil. I'm sure it won't be awkward or anything if the time ever comes to move back.
 
1830 - People in Poland begin the November Uprising against their Russian overlords. Nothing like waiting 'til the last minute.
 
1890 - The Meiji Constitution goes into effect, causing Japan to go on a Diet.
 
1898 - An infant later named C.S. Lewis is mysteriously found in a wardrobe. No one knows where he came from or how he got in there.
 
1944 - Albanian partisans liberate the country. If only they could have managed it yesterday!
 
1963 - Four chaps named John, Paul, George, and Ringo want to hold your hand.
 
1972 - Atari releases Pong. B for graphics, A for replayability, F for story.
 
2001 - Death of George Harrison. His guitar, and the rest of us, gently weep.

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On 11/29/2019 at 6:34 AM, The Old Hack said:

The Dire Straits seemed an obvious choice, but finished in a disappointing fourth place.

At least the internet didn't exist back then or else we'd have Strait McStraityface.

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3 hours ago, Illjwamh said:
Busy day yesterday.
 
On November 29 in History:
 
1972 - Atari releases Pong. B for graphics, A for replayability, F for story.

C for Cash Cow, for a couple of years anyway.

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Only a month and change left to go!
 
On December 1 in History:
 
1135 - Henry ! of England dies, to be succeeded by...what? Oh, this isn't gonna be good.
 
1521 - Takeda Shingen is born to the Daimyo of Kai Province and a tiger.
 
1640 - With João IV as their new king, Portugal breaks up with Spain for good. It's not us; it's you.
 
1822 - Coronation of Emperor Pedro ! of Brazil. When the rest of the royal family returned to Portugal, he was all, "I'll stay here, thanks."
 
1913 - Crete, having just recently won the right of self rule from the Ottoman Empire, is annexed by Greece. Easy come, easy go.
 
1918 - Transylvania unites with Romania to form...Romania. Somehow the balance seems off here.
 
1918 again - Iceland gains its sovereignty, though it remains part of the Danish Kingdom. Someone's going to have to explain that one to me as well.
 
1924 - For the first time, an NHL game is played in the United States: a home game for the Boston Bruins. Ugh, we're letting the Americans in? You know they're just going to ruin the whole thing.
 
1955 - Where does Rosa Parks sit on a bus? Anywhere she wants.
 
1977 - The TV network Pinwheel is launched in Ohio. It's known today as Nickelodeon, after executives decided the original name wasn't obscure and esoteric enough.
 
1990 - The Channel Tunnel sections from France and Britain meet. Now Britain is forever and inexorably tied to the continent! Nothing can ever rip her away!
 
1991 - The people of Ukraine vote overwhelmingly to become independent of the Soviet Union. No dirt on Joe Biden required.

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13 minutes ago, Illjwamh said:

1135 - Henry ! of England dies, to be succeeded by...what? Oh, this isn't gonna be good.

I never heard of Henry the !th. Any relation to Elizabeth the ?th?

14 minutes ago, Illjwamh said:

1955 - Where does Rosa Parks sit on a bus? Anywhere she wants.

F*** yeah. Show 'em honkies.

15 minutes ago, Illjwamh said:

1991 - The people of Ukraine vote overwhelmingly to become independent of the Soviet Union. No dirt on Joe Biden required.

And today Russia wants them back. Thankfully Putin is supported by his loyal vassal Trump.

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9 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

I never heard of Henry the !th. Any relation to Elizabeth the ?th?

Henry Factorial. I believe he's related to Pedro Factorial. (1822)

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9 hours ago, Illjwamh said:
1918 again - Iceland gains its sovereignty, though it remains part of the Danish Kingdom. Someone's going to have to explain that one to me as well.

Having just perused nobility ranks a couple of days ago, "King", i.e. "local sovereign" was not the top rank; there were a very few layers of aggregates of kingdoms, topped by "Emperor." This probably makes more sense as a feudal delegation rather than as a section of a constitutional monarchy.

Edited by Darth Fluffy
Was unclear

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