ParaCalendar for July 26 (Death claims the mighty KUBRICK)

[Mark Thibodeau]

 <http://theghostdiaries.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/stanley-kubrick.jpg>

On this day in *1533*, the 13th and last emperor of the Incas,
*Atahualpa*, dies
by strangulation at the hands of*Francisco Pizarro*'s Spanish
conquistadors. His death marks the end of 300 years of Inca civilization.

***

On this day in *1775*, Hellfire Club charter member *Benjamin Franklin* becomes
America's first Postmaster General.

***

On this day in *1847*, Liberia declares independence... and they all
lived *happily
ever after <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMwI5unlK9M>*.

***

On this day in *1887*, publication of the *Unua Libro
<http://i-espero.info/files/elibroj/eo%20-%20andersen,%20hans%20christian%20-%20fabeloj%201.pdf>*,
founding the *Esperanto* movement.

***

On this day in the year *1928*, cinematic sorceror-king *Stanley
Kubrick* enters
the world kicking and screaming. During the time-span between the release
of *Dr. Strangelove* in 1964, through the five years it took to film *2001:
A Space Odyssey*, continuing up until the premiere of *Clockwork Orange* in
1971, no popular artist had as firm a grasp on the zeitgeist of the West as
did Stanley Kubrick. Two-hundred years from now, if human beings are still
around to watch and discuss film, Stanley Kubrick’s masterpieces will
continue to be watched, revered and fiercely debated, while 99.999% of the
tepid dreck that currently pollutes our movie screens will be blissfully
forgotten.

***

On this day in *1936*, the Axis powers decide to intervene in the Spanish
Civil War, thus giving macho liberals, socialists and *other assorted
left-wingers
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Brigades#Notable_associated_people>*
-
like *Ernest Hemmingway* - a chance to earn their battle scars and gain
some macho street cred, years before World War II really got rolling.

***

On this day in *1941*, in response to the Japanese occupation of French
Indochina, US President *Franklin D. Roosevelt* orders the seizure of all
Japanese assets in the United States. This does not sit well with them.

***

On this day in *1944*, the first German *V2* rocket hits the United
Kingdom. Seeing as they were supersonic, you never heard the one that hit
you.

***

On this day in *1947*, US President *Harry S. Truman* signs the *National
Security Act* into law, thus creating the*Central Intelligence Agency*, the
Department of Defense, the US Air Force, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the
United States National Security Council. One year later, on this day in
*1948*, *Truman* signed Executive Order 9981, thereby desegregating the US
military.

***

On this day in *1956*, following the *World Bank*'s refusal to fund
building the Aswan Dam, Egyptian leader Gamal *Abdel Nasser* nationalizes
the Suez Canal, sparking international condemnation.

***

On this day in *1977*, the National Assembly of Quebec mandates the use of
*French* as the official language of the provincial (and perhaps, one day,
national) government.

***

On this day in *1989*, a federal grand jury indicts Cornell University
student *Robert T. Morris Jr* for releasing the*Morris Worm*, thus becoming
the first person to be prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse
Act.

***

On this day in *1990*, President *George Herbert Walker "Poppy" Bush* signs
into law the Americans with Disabilities Act, thereby making it possible
for his very own son, *George "Dubya" Bush*, to become the nation's first
mentally retarded Preznit, only a decade later.

***

On this day in *1991*, a Florida police officer arrests *Pee Wee Herman* after
watching him jerk off in a porno theater. Within hours, every last person
on the planet - including people who had no idea who Pee Wee Herman was -
are informed that Pee Wee Herman jerked off in a porno theater. For a while
there, he was the designated *Global Village Idiot*.
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