Paracultural Calendar for Aug 12

[Mark Thibodeau]

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On this day in *30 BC*, the infamous *Cleopatra VII Philopator*, last ruler
of the Egyptian Ptolemaic dynasty, commits suicide, allegedly by means of
an asp bite.

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On this day in *1950*, the Bloody Gulch Massacre takes place during the
Korean Conflict. North Korean soldiers gun down dozens of American
Prisoners of War.

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On this day in *1952*, 13 prominent Jewish intellectuals are murdered in
Moscow, Russia, in a wave of anti-Semitic violence known as The Night of
the Murdered Poets.

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On this day in *1953*, the Soviet Union test-detonates their so-called *Layer
Cake Bomb* - a 400-kiloton device fueled by layers of uranium and lithium
deuteride - in Kazakhstan. In response, the Pentagon cranks things up a
notch by creating both a *Bundt Cake Bomb* and an *Apple Brown Betty Bomb*,
both of which are devastatingly powerful... and irresistibly scrumptious!

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On this day in *1964*, South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games due to
the country's racist policies.

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On this day in *1981*, the IBM Personal Computer (PC) is released.

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On this day in *1992*, Canada, Mexico and the United States announce
completion of negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement,
more popularly known as *NAFTA*.

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On this day in *2000*, The Oscar class submarine *K-141 Kursk* of the
Russian Navy explodes and sinks in the bottom of the Barents Sea during a
mysterious military exercise. The cause of the sinking remains unknown.
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