PARACULTURAL CALENDAR FOR AUGUST 20

[Mark Thibodeau]

<http://pre09.deviantart.net/ba5c/th/pre/f/2014/151/0/f/cthulhu_oil_painting_by_tentaclesandteeth-d7khm57.jpg>


On this day in *1000*, the foundation of the Hungarian state by *Saint
Stephen*, first King of Hungary. Today celebrated as the National Day of
Hungary by all my crazy Magyar friends! In fact, it was on this day in 83
years later, in *1083*, that the Catholic Church canonized *Saint Stephen* and
his son *Saint Emeric*.


***


On this day in *1308*, Pope *Clement V* pardons *Jacques de Molay*, the
last Grand Master of the *Knights Templar*, absolving him of charges of
heresy. A little late for that, ain't it, Clem?


***


On this day in *1858*, theologian *Charles Darwin* first publishes his
theory of evolution through natural selection in The *Journal of the
Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London*, alongside *Alfred Russel
Wallace*'s same theory.


***


On this day in *1890*, the writer *Howard Philips Lovecraft* - father of
the Modern literary genre of Cosmic Horror and creator of such dark fantasy
staples as Cthulhu (see above) and the Necronomicon - is born to a
syphilitic father and a certifiably insane mother. Both parents would die
after years of institutionalization. Old H.P. was raised by two doting old
aunts in a rickety mansion in Providence, Rhode Island. And if you aren't
reading *Alan Moore*'s current, ongoing comic series *Providence
<http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/03/05/alan-moore-heralds-providence-time-go-reappraisal-lovecraft/>*,
you're missing out on the best art and writing the comics field currently
has to offer. Beyond all odds, Mr Lovecraft remains *tragically relevant
<http://dailydirtdiaspora.blogspot.ca/2013/02/even-death-may-die.html>*.


***


On this day in *1913*, contrary to the cowardly reputation of his fellow
countrymen, *Adolphe Pegoud* - a Frenchman - becomes the first person dumb
enough to test-drive a *parachute*. It opens, and Pegoud survived, but he
hit the ground at something like thirty miles per hour. Ayoye, tabarnac!


***


Undercover NKVD agent *Ramón Mercader *manages to gain entrance to *Leon
Trotsky*'s heavily-guarded Mexican safe house, where he pulls out an ice
axe and buries it deep in the prolific communist intellectual-in-exile's
skull. How he managed to penetrate Trotsky's thick and wiry nimbus of a
hairdo, yer old pal Jerky has yet to figure out.


***


On this day in *1975*, NASA launches the *Viking 1* planetary probe toward
Mars.


***


On this day in *1982*, President *Ronald Reagan* orders 800 U.S. Marines to
join a multinational force in Beirut to help oversee the Palestinian
withdrawal from Lebanon, where a fierce civil war between Muslim and
Christian militias had been raging for seven years. Seventeen months and
262 dead Marines later,Reagan decides to pull out and send our battle-weary
soldiers on a working vacation in beautiful downtown Grenada! What a nice
gesture!


***


On this day in the year *1986*, mailman *Patrick Sherrill* arrives for work
at the Edmund, Oklahoma (pop. 35,000) Post Office, pulls out a gun and
starts to pick off his co-workers one-by-one. Sherrill's rampage leaves 14
people dead, and forever cements the public perception of postal workers as
being two rounds short of a full clip.


***


On this day in *1988*, a ceasefire is agreed after almost eight years of
the Iran/Iraq war.


***


On this day in *1989*, those wacky *Menendez brothers* murder their
parents. Media-fueled chaos ensues.
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