Paracultural Calendae Apr 25 and 26

[Mark Thibodeau]

25

On this day in *1983*, mere months after President *Ronald Reagan* famously
likened the USSR to an "evil empire," Soviet leader *Yuri Andropov* replies
to a personal letter from American fifth-grader *Samantha Smith*. In
response to Smith's question about nuclear war, Andropov wrote:

"Samantha, we in the Soviet Union are endeavoring and doing everything so
that there will be no war between our two countries, so that there will be
no war at all on earth. This is the wish of everyone in the Soviet Union. I
vow that we will never, but never, be the first to use nuclear weapons
against any country.”

Andropov ended his letter by inviting Smith and her family to Moscow for a
visit. She accepted, and for a while, Samantha Smith was getting *O.J.*-level
media attention. They were calling her: "America's youngest ambassador!"
They were talking about a sea change in American-Soviet relations.

Within the span of two years, both Yuri Andropov and Samantha Smith would
be dead. The former was felled by a fierce kidney infection, and the latter
was torn to shreds in a small plane crash. Two voices for peace,
conveniently silenced, leaving the military industrial complex safe to go
on churning out five hundred dollar hammers, thousand-dollar toilet seats
and billion-dollar stealth bombers.

*****

On this day in *1933*, the United States drops the gold standard. Ever
since then, the economy has been built upon the illusion of fiat currency
and the “promise” of future debt. Judging by the mortgaged house you live
in, the leased vehicle you drive, the mass-manufactured food and the mass
media stimulation devices you use to stuff your face and brain, thereby
numbing your psychic agony, I suppose it all worked out for the best!

***

On this day in the year *1792*, the art of punishment collides head-on with
the cutting edge of technology as the*guillotine* is first used in the
execution of a criminal. The lucky footnote? Highway bandit *Nicolas
Pelletier*.

***

On this day in *1953*, scientists first identify *DNA*, the words formed by
the genetic alphabet of life. Kinda looks like one of the corridors from
the Discovery in *Stanley Kubrick*'s *2001: A Space Odyssey*, doesn't it?



26

<http://www.oneonta.edu/faculty/farberas/arth/Images/110images/sl24_images/guernica_details/guernica_all.jpg>

On this day in *1937*, the *Nazis* test the bombing capabilities of their
newly inaugurated Luftwaffe air force on the tiny Spanish town of *Guernica*,
with *Generalisimo Francisco Franco*'s consent. For three hours, German
planes poured bombs on the town in what was history's first ever bombing of
purely civilian targets, a tactic that would later be enthusiastically
adopted by both sides of the conflict, at the ultimate cost of millions of
innocent lives. The attack inspired *Picasso* to paint his great
masterpiece, *Guernica*.

*****

On this day in *1962*, roughly three days after being launched, NASA's *Ranger
4* spacecraft - which was designed to transmit pictures of the lunar
surface, to rough-land a seismometer capsule on the Moon, to collect
gamma-ray data, and to study the potential radar reflectivity of the lunar
surface - fails to do ANY of those things after a computer malfunction
causes it to crash into the dark side of the Moon.

*****

On this day in *1986*, a nuclear reactor at the *Chernobyl* power plant in
the Soviet Union melts down, killing 31 and irradiating hundreds of
thousands more. It was, and still remains, the single worst nuclear
accident in history, with a legacy that is just... it's... it's *beyond
words <http://mediastorm.com/publication/chernobyl-legacy>*, is what it is.

<http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_mGMUxSe_j0I/R24t5bmY2nI/AAAAAAAAAs4/ndqvaJ1Z-oY/s400/chernobyl+-+multiple+sclerosis.jpg>
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