On This Day in Paracultural History

[Mark Thibodeau]

It's something I put up every day at my blog (uselesseaterblog.blogspot.com),
but if there are no complaints, I'd be happy to paste the day's historical
events to the P-List!

That was yesterday's list, incidentally. I grabbed it from my blog before
the turnover.

Here is today's list...

On this day in *537*, the *Hagia Sophia* is completed. And... wow. Google
it. Just wow.

***

On this day in *1831*, *Sir Charles Darwin* begins his voyage on board the
HMS Beagle. The books, research and theories generated during this historic
voyage cause so much blithering, frothing panic amongst the world's
truth-o-phobic that yer old pal Jerky just can’t help but gloat over it!

***

On this day in *1845*, ether anesthetic is used for childbirth for the
first time by Dr. *Crawford Long *in Jefferson, Georgia.

***

On this day in *1845*, journalist *John L. O'Sullivan*, writing in his
newspaper the *New York Morning News,* argues that the United States had
the right to claim the entire Oregon Country "by the right of our *manifest
destiny*".

***

On this day in *1945*, the *World Bank* and *International Monetary Fund* are
created with the signing of an agreement by 29 nations.

***

On this day in *1966*, the *Cave of Swallows*, the largest known cave shaft
in the world, is discovered in Aquismón, San Luis Potosí, Mexico. Google
that one, too. Hard to believe we never noticed that before then, eh?

***

On this day in *1968*, Apollo 8 splashes down in the Pacific Ocean, ending
the first orbital manned mission to the Moon.

***

On this day in *1983*, Pope *John Paul II* visits *Memhet Ali* *Agca* in
Rebibbia's prison and personally forgives him for the 1981 attack on him in
St. Peter's Square.

***

On this day in *2001*, China is granted permanent normal trade relations
with the United States. And why not? I mean... Tibet, Tienanmen Square, the
Cultural Revolution and a bunch of other stuff notwithstanding.

***

On this day in *2004*, radiation from an explosion on the magnetar *SGR
1806-20* reaches Earth. It is the brightest extrasolar event known to have
been witnessed on the planet.

***

On this day in *2007*, former Pakistani prime minister *Benazir Bhutto* is
assassinated.

***

On this day in *2008*, Israel launches a 3-week military operation on the
starved, blockaded, open-air prison camp that is Gaza. And they give this
op such a friendly name, too: “Cast Lead.” Nice ring, yes?


On Sat, Dec 27, 2014 at 10:37 AM, Allan Balliett <allan.balliett at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Thanks for brightening my day, Mark.
>
> Hopefully, this will be a regular feature for the coming year! (?)
>
> -Allan in WV
>
> On Sat, Dec 27, 2014 at 9:25 AM, Mark Thibodeau <jerkyleboeuf at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> On this day in *1799*, 4000 people attend *George Washington*'s funeral
>> where *Henry Lee III*declares him as "first in war, first in peace and
>> first in the hearts of his countrymen."
>>
>> ***
>>
>> On this day in *1846*, trapped in snow in the Sierra Nevadas and without
>> food, members of the*Donner Party* resort to cannibalism.
>>
>> ***
>>
>> On this day in *1862*, the largest mass-hanging in U.S. history took
>> place in Mankato, Minnesota, 38 Native Americans die.
>>
>> ***
>>
>> On this day in *1898*, *Marie and Pierre Curie* announce the isolation
>> of radium. They would soon both die of radiation poisoning.
>>
>> ***
>>
>> On this day in *1900*, a relief crew arrives at the lighthouse on the
>> Flannan Isles of Scotland, UK, only to find the previous crew has
>> disappeared without a trace. *Oo-We-oooo!
>> <http://sjhstrangetales.wordpress.com/2012/01/10/the-flannan-isles-lighthouse-mystery/>*
>>
>> ***
>>
>> On this day in *1982*, Time's *Man of the Year* is for the first time a
>> non-human: the *Personal Computer*.
>>
>> ***
>>
>> On this day in *1991*, the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union meets and
>> formally dissolves the Soviet Union.
>>
>> ***
>> On this day in *1996*, one of the most infuriating cases in the history
>> of American jurisprudence gets rolling when 6-year-old beauty queen *JonBenét
>> Ramsey* is found beaten and strangled to death in the basement of her
>> family's home in Boulder, Colorado. To list all the reasons why it's
>> obvious that the Ramseys either killed their daughter themselves, or else
>> damn well know who did, would take more time and patience than I am
>> currently willing to bestow upon the subject. Suffice it to say that the
>> multi-millionaire couple were just too white and too rich to go to jail
>> over something as trifling as a the brutal rape/murder of their own fucking
>> daughter.
>>
>> ***
>>
>> On this day in *2003*, a magnitude 6.6 earthquake devastates southeast
>> Iranian city of Bam, killing tens of thousands and destroying the citadel
>> of Arg-é Bam. One year later, on this day in *2004*, a 9.3 magnitude
>> earthquake creates a tsunami causing devastation in Sri Lanka, India,
>> Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Maldives and many other areas around the
>> rim of the Indian Ocean, killing close to *a quarter of a million human
>> beings*, for fuck's sake. Un-fucking-believable.
>>
>
>
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