ParaCalendar for June 30

[Mark Thibodeau]

On this day in 1882, American preacher, lawyer, political writer and
spurned stalker Charles J. Guiteau is hanged by the neck until dead in
Washington DC after being found guilty of assassinating US President
James Garfield, who died eleven weeks after Guiteau shot him.

***

On this day in 1905, world historic genius physicist Albert Einstein
publishes the article On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies, in
which he introduces special relativity. Very few people understand it,
to this very day.

***

On this day in 1908, a gigantic, gaseous fireball slams into the
Siberian tundra at Tunguska, leveling trees for thousands of square
miles. Some folks claim the incident was actually a UFO crash-landing,
while others believe the explosion was caused by a small asteroid.
Personally, I believe that there was a lot more to it than just that.
Something...strange and otherworldly, perhaps.

***

The so-called Night of the Long Knives took place on this day in 1934.
Himmler, Goering and Goebbels convinceHitler that he needs to get rid
of Ernst Roehm, who controlled the 3 million-strong Sturm Abteilung
Brownshirt militia, without which Hitler probably would not have been
able to seize power in Germany in the first place. Roughly 400 Nazi
party members, including Roehm, are killed in the purge, which is only
revealed to the German public half a month later.

***

On this day in 1966, the United States' largest feminist organization
- the National Organization for Women, or NOW - is founded in
Washington DC. Today, it has over half a million dues paying members
in over five hundred chapters all across the USA.

***

On this day in 1971, the three-man crew of the Soviet Soyuz 11
spacecraft is killed during an accidental catastrophic
depressurization event, causing their air supply to escape through a
faulty valve coupling. Theirs remain the only human deaths in outer
space (as opposed to the high atmosphere deaths of those killed in
Space Shuttle missions).

***

On this day in 1987, the Royal Canadian Mint introduces Canada’s new
$1 coin to replace the paper banknote. Canadians immediately start
referring to it as the Loonie, after the aquatic bird that graces one
side of it.

***

On this day in 1997, the United Kingdom transfers sovereignty over
Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China. In hindsight, the
transition appears to have gone off without a hitch or hiccup, and
Hong Kong residents enjoy a certain degree of autonomy and freedom of
expression not allowed to their mainland compatriots to this very day.
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l