PARACULTURAL CALENDAR FOR JUNE 8

[Mark Thibodeau]

On this day in *632 AD*, the prophet and founder of Islam, *Muhammad*, dies
in Medina. His rule is succeeded by *Abu Bakr*, who becomes the first
Caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate.

***

On this day in *793 AD*, the Scandinavian invasion of England begins when
*Vikings* raid the abbey at Lindisfarne in Northumbria. These raids would
continue for over a hundred years, until the Vikings convert, *en mass*, to
Christianity, and become relatively docile almost overnight.

***

On this day in *1794*, French Revolutionary figure *Robespierre* inaugurates
France’s new state religion: the *Cult of the Supreme Being!* Despite
coming complete with large organized festivals to be celebrated all across
France, i fails to catch on.

***

On this day in *1949*, an FBI report names celebrities *Helen Keller*, *Dorothy
Parker*, *Danny Kaye*, *Fredric March*,*John Garfield*, *Paul Muni* and *Edward
G. Robinson* as members of the American Communist Party. Meanwhile, in
England, *George Orwell*'s prophetic dystopian novel *Nineteen
Eighty-Four* lands
on the nation’s bookshelves and consciousness with the force of a rogue
comet.

***

On this day in the year *1959*, the Navy submarine U.S.S. Barbero fires a
guided missile carrying 3,000 letters at the Naval Auxiliary Air Station in
Mayport, Florida. "Before man reaches the moon," one official opined at the
time, "mail will be delivered within hours from New York to California, to
Britain, to India or Australia, by guided missiles." And so it was, and so
it always shall be. I mean, can you imagine a world without guided
missile-delivered mail?!

***
<http://www.ussliberty.org/g/lg/lgwalsh06.jpg>

On this day in *1967*, Israeli warplanes launch a savage attack on the *USS
Liberty*, an American intelligence gathering ship, killing 34 of her crew
and wounding another 171. Israel tried to claim it was a friendly fire
incident… but *it wasn’t
<http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/ussliberty.html>*.

***

On this day in *1972*, Associated Press photographer *Nick Ut* takes his
Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of a naked 9-year-old *Phan Thị Kim Phúc* running
down a road after being burned by napalm.

***

On this day in *2004*, Venus transits across the Sun for the first time in
modern history. The previous transit took place over a hundred years
previous, in 1882. Because these transits happen in pairs, separated by
roughly 8 years, the*2012* transit was the last one of the 21st century.
There won't be another for a long, long time.

<http://www.astronomynorth.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/transit-venus-8juin2004-schedler.jpg>
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