Paracultural Calendar for Feb 25

[Mark Thibodeau]

On this day in *1336*, 4,000 defenders of Pilėnai commit a *mass
suicide* rather
than be taken captive by the *Teutonic Knights*.

***

On this day in *1570*, Pope *Pius V* excommunicates Queen *Elizabeth I* of
England.

***

On this day in *1751*, the first performing monkey is exhibited in America.
At the time, nobody could have guessed that this was the inaugural trip at
the top of the slippery slope that led to a performing monkey being
installed in the White House, two and a half centuries later.

***

On this day in *1838*, a man in London walks 20 miles backwards, then
retraces his route (walking forwards this time) in an astonishing 8 hour
marathon of idiocy. Now you know what people did before television came
along to fill their empty, meaningless lives!

***

On this day in *1866*, miners in Calaveras County, California, discover
what is now called the *Calaveras Skull*, human remains that supposedly
indicated that man, mastodons, and elephants had co-existed.

***

On this day in *1870*, *Hiram Rhodes Revels*, a Republican from
Mississippi, is sworn into the United States Senate, becoming the first
African American ever to sit in the U.S. Congress.

***

On this day in *1901*, conspiracy-magnet *J.P. Morgan* incorporates the
United States Steel Corporation.

***

On this day in *1932*, *Adolf Hitler* obtains German citizenship by
naturalization, which allows him to run in the 1932 election for
Reichspräsident.

***

On this day in *1956*, in his speech *On the Personality Cult and its
Consequences
<http://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/stalin-denounced-nikita-khrushchev>*
 *Nikita Khrushchev*, leader of the Soviet Union denounces the cult of
personality of *Joseph Stalin*.

***

On this day in *1960*, avant garde composer *John Cage*'s *Music for
Amplified Toy Pianos* is first performed. Unfortunately for the audience,
the piece really does sound like a bunch of toy pianos, amplified. Cage
achieved his unique sound for the piece by taking actual toy pianos… and
amplifying them. What a *GENIUS!*
<http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/cage_j.html>

***

On this day in *1964*, boxer *Cassius Clay* TKOs the fearsome champion, *Sonny
Liston*, in the 7th round, thus winning the world heavyweight championship.
Cassius would go on to convert to Islam, change his name, dodge the draft,
and gain international recognition as a Great American. Seems incongruous
now, doesn't it?

***

On this day in *1982*, the final episode of *The Lawrence Welk Show* airs.
Bubbles ensue.

***

On this day in *1986*, President of the Philippines *Ferdinand Marcos* flees
the nation after 20 years of rule; *Corazon Aquino* becomes the
Philippines' first woman president.

***

On this day in *1989*, the Dallas Cowboys NFL franchise fires legendary
coach *Tom Landry* after a storied 29-year career. Chaos ensues.

***

On this day in *1991*, during the *Gulf War*, an Iraqi Scud missile hits an
American military barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia killing 28 U.S. Army
Reservists from Pennsylvania.

***

On this day in *1991*, the *Warsaw Pact* is declared disbanded.

***

On this day in *1994*, in the Cave of the Patriarchs in the West Bank city
of Hebron, *Baruch Goldstein* opens fire with an automatic rifle, killing
29 Palestinian worshippers and injuring 125 more before being subdued and
beaten to death by survivors.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20150225/75e04e94/attachment.html>