Paracultural Calendar for June 4

[Mark Thibodeau]

<http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Antonio_Carnicero_Y_Mancio_-_Ascent_of_the_Monsieur_Boucl%C3%A9's_Montgolfier_Balloon_in_the_Gardens_of_Aranjuez_-_WGA04273.jpg>

On this day in *1783*, in the skies over Annonay, France, the
*Montgolfier* brothers
become the first human beings since the Antediluvian Era to achieve manned
flight when they publicly demonstrate their latest invention: the hot air
balloon!

***

On this day in *1798*, legendary Italian adventurer and occult
philosopher *Giacomo
Casanova* passes away. His name is still used as a form of shorthand to
describe men who are skilled in the art of getting into a woman’s
underpants.

***

On this day in *1913*, a suffragette named *Emily Davison* runs onto a
racetrack in front of *King George V*'s horse at the Epsom Derby and is
promptly trampled. She never regains consciousness and dies a few days
later. Meanwhile, six years later to the day, US Congress approves the *19th
Amendment* to the Constitution, guaranteeing suffrage (the vote) to women,
on this day in *1919*.

***

On this day in *1928*, one of the most convoluted political assassination
plots in the history of Modern statecraft takes place when *Zhang Zuolin*,
Warlord of Manchuria and President of the Republic of China, is killed by a
bomb planted by Japanese agents, just a few weeks after being defeated by
the Chinese Nationalists led by *Chiang Kai-shek*. This, despite the fact
that Zhang was “Japan’s Man in China” at the time, having seized control of
Peking only two years previous, in April of 1926.

***

On this day in *1939*, the *MS St. Louis*, a ship carrying 963 Jewish
refugees, is denied permission to land in Florida after already being
turned away from Cuba. It would later also be turned away from Canada.
Forced to *return to Europe <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_St._Louis>*,
more than 200 of its passengers would later die in Nazi concentration camps.

***

On this day in *1950*, current Coast to Coast AM host *George Noory* was
born.

***

On this day in *1961*, the first 13 *Freedom Riders* begin their bus trip
through the American South, in an effort to end segregation of the public
transportation system. After training in non-violent civil disobedience
techniques, black and white volunteers sit next to each other as they
travel by bus through the Deep South. In Anniston, Alabama, one bus is
destroyed, and riders on another are attacked by men armed with clubs,
bricks, iron pipes and knives. In response to these acts of violence,
Attorney General *Robert Kennedy* sends DOJ official *John Seigenthaler *to
accompany the Freedom Riders. In Birmingham, the passengers are greeted by
the *Ku Klux Klan*, and further acts of violence. At Montgomery, the state
capital, a white mob beats the riders with chains and ax handles. When
local authorities make it clear that they will make no effort to protect
the Riders, President *John F. Kennedy* sends federal marshals from the
North to do the job. Despite the escalating violence,over a thousand
volunteers take part in Freedom Rides during the ensuing months.

***
<https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/65/Kent_State_massacre.jpg>

On this day in *1970*,* "four dead in Ohio."
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_state_massacre>*

***

On this day in *1986*, Israeli spy *Jonathan Pollard* pleads guilty to
selling top secret United States military intelligence to Israel. Pretty
much everybody knows about this case, and Israel has been lobbying hard for
Pollard to be freed. However, fewer people realize that Pollard also sold
secrets to South Africa, Pakistan and China. Pollard will be eligible for
parole in 2015.

***

On this day in *2003*, multimedia superstar *Martha Stewart* is indicted on
nine counts of securities fraud and obstruction of justice after she sold
all her shares in *ImClone* upon learning through back-channels that an
adverse FDA ruling was about to wipe out the stock. A quick review of the
evidence against her, however, could easily lead an impartial observer to
conclude that the two biggest mistakes Martha Stewart ever made were *1)* being
born without a penis, and *2)* making donations to the wrong political
party.

***

On this day in *2004*, mechanic/entrepreneur *Marvin John Heemeyer* goes on
a rampage with a souped-up "Killdozer" -- a bulldozer outfitted with layers
of steel and concrete -- in protest over the outcome of a zoning dispute in
Granby, Colorado. Heemeyer demolishes the town hall, the mayor's house, and
a bunch of other buildings before his bulldozer gets hung up in the
basement of a building that he’d just destroyed, at which point Heemeyer
shot himself with a handgun.
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