Paracultural Calendar for April 4

Mark Thibodeau jerkyleboeuf at gmail.com
Sat Apr 4 22:55:24 CDT 2015


On this day in *1147*, we have the first historical record of Moscow.

***

On this day in *1581*, *Francis Drake* is knighted for completing a
circumnavigation of the world.

***

On this day in *1721*, *Sir Robert Walpole* takes office as the first Prime
Minister of the United Kingdom under *King George I*.

***

On this day in *1768*, in London, England, Great Britain, *Philip
Astley* stages
the first modern circus.

***

On this day in *1841*, *President William Henry Harrison* succumbs to
pneumonia, thus becoming the first President of the United States to die in
office. Harrison only served for one month, most of it bed-ridden, and he
still managed to leave a greater legacy than *Preznit Dubya*.

***

Happy Birthday *NATO* (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), which was
signed into existence on this day in *1949*.

***

On this day in *1964*, *The Beatles* occupy the TOP FIVE positions on the
Billboard Hot 100 pop chart.

***

On this day in *1967*, *Martin Luther King, Jr.* delivers his "Beyond
Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" speech in New York City's Riverside
Church. One year later, on this day in *1968*, at 6:01 in the afternoon,
the civil rights activist is leaning over the balcony railing of his
second-floor room at the Motel Lorraine to speak to his chauffeur, when a
slug from a high-powered rifle smashes through his chest, killing him. *James
Earl Ray* is later arrested based on the testimony of *Charles Stephens*,
who refuses to finger Ray until the FBI pays off his $30,000 bar tab, and
who originally told police that the man he saw exiting the boarding house
bathroom from whence the killshot had come was "a nigger." Click *HERE*
<http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-conspiracy-to-kill-martin-luther-king-not-a-theory-but-a-fact/5329816>
if
you're interested in finding out more well-documented weirdness surrounding
the assassination of *MLK*.

***

On this day in *1969*, the most popular show on TV – *The Smothers Brothers
Comedy Hour* <http://www.tvparty.com/smothers.html> – is cancelled by CBS
for airing political satire of the politically incorrect variety. Among
their crimes, the Brothers dared to invite *Pete Seeger*, who sang an
anti-war song on the air, in Prime Time. Adding insult to injury, the
network replaced the vibrant, vital show with... *Hee-Haw*.

***

On this day in *1973*, the *World Trade Center* in New York is officially
dedicated.

***

The first entry in *Winston Smith*'s diary as depicted in *George Orwell*'s
visionary dystopian novel *Nineteen-Eighty Four*, is written on this day
in... you guessed it... 1984. You can read the entire novel online, for
free, *here* <http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/1984/>.

***

On this day in *1991*, Senator *John Heinz* of Pennsylvania and six others
are killed when a helicopter collides with their airplane over an
elementary school in Merion, Pennsylvania.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20150404/4f6377a6/attachment.html>


More information about the Pynchon-l mailing list