On This Day in Paracultural History for January 1!

[Mark Thibodeau]

Thank you, David. I hope you don't mind that I'm forwarding this to the
entire P-list, as you only sent it to me in your reply.

Cheers!
Jerky

David Casseres sent this illuminating reply to my On This Day post:

"On this day in *1804*, after the first and to date only successful slave
revolution, French rule ends in Haiti, which becomes the first black
republic and second independent country in North America after the United
States."

Shortly thereafter, France sues Haiti for the entire value of the former
French colony: land, shipping, bank accounts, and of course, slaves.

Haiti, in order to survive, needs recognition as a sovereign state from the
only other sovereign state in the hemisphere – the U.S.

The U.S. agrees to recognize Haiti on condition that Haiti agrees to the
French lawsuit. Haiti was still making payments in 1947, in case anybody
wonders why Haiti has been in abject poverty ever since achieving
independance. This shameful story is not over yet:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/aug/15/france-haiti-independence-debt



> On Thu, Jan 1, 2015 at 3:34 PM, Mark Thibodeau <jerkyleboeuf at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> *New Year's Day* is celebrated for the first time in history as the
>> Julian calendar takes effect on this day in *45 BC*. Yer old pal Jerky
>> is still trying to figure out how they knew to start counting backwards
>> until Jesus was born.
>>
>> ***
>>
>> On this day in *404*, an infuriated Roman mob tears *Telemachus*, a
>> Christian monk, to pieces for trying to stop a gladiators' fight in the
>> public arena held in Rome.
>>
>> ***
>>
>> On this day in *1801*, the dwarf planet *Ceres* is discovered by *Giuseppe
>> Piazzi*.
>>
>> ***
>>
>> On this day in *1804*, after the first and to date only successful slave
>> revolution, French rule ends in Haiti, which becomes the first black
>> republic and second independent country in North America after the United
>> States.
>>
>> ***
>>
>> On this day in *1808*, the importation of slaves into the United States
>> is made illegal, thus forcing slave-holding families to start "growing
>> their own" by breeding new slaves from existing stock. A*peculiar
>> institution <http://www.ushistory.org/us/27.asp>*, indeed.
>>
>> ***
>>
>> On this day in *1934*, Nazi Germany passes the "Law for the Prevention
>> of Genetically Diseased Offspring", thus paving the way for the
>> establishment of death camps.
>>
>> ***
>>
>> On this day in *1945*, in one of the worst American war crimes of World
>> War II, enraged U.S. troops massacre 30 Nazi SS prisoners at Chenogne in
>> retaliation for the Malmedy massacre.
>>
>> ***
>>
>> On this day in *1947*, the Canadian Citizenship Act 1946 comes into
>> effect, converting British subjects into Canadian citizens. Prime Minister *William
>> Lyon Mackenzie King* becomes the first Canadian citizen.
>>
>> ***
>>
>> On this day in *1959*, *Fulgencio Batista*, dictator of Cuba, is
>> overthrown by *Fidel Castro*'s forces during the Cuban Revolution.
>>
>> ***
>>
>> On this day in *1971*, cigarette advertisements are banned on American
>> television.
>>
>> ***
>>
>> On this day in *1983*, ARPANET officially changes to using the Internet
>> Protocol, creating the Internet. Two years later, on this day in *1985*,
>> the Internet's Domain Name System (DNS) is created.
>>
>> ***
>>
>> On this day in *1989*, the *Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete
>> the Ozone Layer* comes into force. The effect these protocols have on
>> ozone depletion is, you might be pleasantly surprised to find out, *immensely
>> beneficial
>> <http://www.thegef.org/gef/greenline/july-2012/montreal-protocol-marking-25th-anniversary-most-successful-global-environment-ag>*
>> .
>>
>> ***
>>
>> On this day in *1994*, NAFTA - the North American Free Trade Agreement -
>> goes into effect.
>>
>> ***
>>
>> On this day in *1995*, the *Draupner Wave* in the North Sea in Norway is
>> detected, confirming the existence of freak waves.
>>
>> ***
>>
>> On this day in the year *2000*, an awful lot of people feel pretty
>> fuckin' silly while contemplating all those bags or rice, cans of sliced
>> peaches and ten gallon bottles of water they bought to prepare for the
>> global meltdown that was supposed to befall us at the stroke of midnight on
>> *Y2K*.
>>
>
>
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