Paracultural Calendar for Jan 19

[Mark Thibodeau]

On this day in *1915*, *Georges Claude* patents the neon discharge tube for
use in advertising.

***

On this day in *1915*, German zeppelins bomb the towns of Great Yarmouth
and King's Lynn in the United Kingdom killing more than 20, in the first
major aerial bombardment of a civilian target.

***

On this day in *1953*, 71.7% of all television sets in the United States
are tuned into *I Love Lucy *to watch Lucy give birth.

***

On this day in *1955*, *Scrabble* - a game in which players accumulate
points by spelling words with randomly distributed letter tiles - first
hits department store shelves. When playing this game, yer old pal Jerky
likes to challenge himself by only using words you're not allowed to say on
television.

***

On this day in the year *1971*, the *Beatles*' *Helter Skelter* is played
in the courtroom where the case against *Charles Manson* is being heard.
During one of their bloody midnight massacres, Manson's brood had scrawled
the words "helter sketer" (sic) on a mirror, in their victims' blood. You
know, if the same thing happened today, the *Tate* and *LaBianca* families
probably would have filed a class action lawsuit against *John*, *Paul*,
*George* and *Ringo*, claiming they were partly responsible for the deaths
of their loved ones, and should be made to pay accordingly. Anyway,
after prosecutor *Vincent Bugliosi* plays the record, the jury are
unanimous in their decision that it's got a good beat, and that they can
dance to it. They give it a "9", Dick.

***

On this day in *1981*, United States and Iranian officials sign an
agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months of captivity.

***

On this day in *1983*, Nazi war criminal *Klaus Barbie* is arrested in
Bolivia.

***

On this day in *1983*, the *Apple Lisa*, the first commercial personal
computer from Apple Inc. to have a graphical user interface and a computer
mouse, is announced.

***

On this day in *1986*, the first IBM PC computer virus is released into the
wild. A boot sector virus dubbed *(c)Brain*, it was created by the *Farooq
Alvi Brothers* in Lahore, Pakistan, reportedly to deter piracy of the
software they had written.

***

On this day in *2006*, the New Horizons probe is launched by NASA on the
first mission to Pluto, or *Yuggoth*, as it's known to those of us in the
deep, dark know.

***

On this day in *2012*, *Kim DotCom*'s Hong Kong-based file-sharing website
*Megaupload* is shut down by the FBI. Quite *the story
<http://www.digitaltrends.com/web/the-megaupload-saga-a-timeline-of-events/>*,
that...
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