Paracultural Calendar for March 21

[Mark Thibodeau]

On this day in *235*, *Maximinus Thrax* is proclaimed emperor. He is the
first foreigner to hold the Roman throne.

***

On this day in *1616*, *Sir Walter Raleigh* is freed from the Tower of
London after 13 years of imprisonment.

***

On this day in *1815*, after escaping from Elba, *Napoleon *enters Paris
with a regular army of 140,000 and a volunteer force of around 200,000,
beginning his "Hundred Days" rule.

***

On this day in *1852*, *Harriet Beecher Stowe*'s *Uncle Tom's Cabin* is
published.

***

On this day in *1854*, the Republican Party of the United States is
organized in Ripon, Wisconsin. Chaos ensues.

***

It's a real-life case of Romeo and Juliet, redneck-style, when a member of
the *Hatfield* clan ignores his kinfolks' pleas and marries a *McCoy* woman
on this day in *1891*, thereby ending the second longest and bloodiest
family feud in the history of the United States. The bloodiest family feud
in the history of the United States was, of course, the *Bushes* versus the
*Husseins*.

***

On this day in *1916*, *Albert Einstein* publishes his general theory of
relativity.

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On this day in *1985*, Canadian paraplegic athlete and humanitarian *Rick
Hansen* begins his circumnavigation of the globe in a wheelchair in the
name of spinal cord injury medical research.

***

On this day in *1991*, guitar god *Eric Clapton* has to fire his babysitter.

***

On this day in *1995*, during rush hour in Tokyo, Japan, ten members
of the *Aum
Shinrikyo *religious cult release sarin nerve gas into the subway system.
Twelve people die in the attack, and over five thousand others are treated
for various ill effects, although many "survivors" suffered permanent
damage to their eyes, lungs, and digestive systems. It all started in the
1980s, when Aum's leader - an obese, blind furball by the name of *Shoko
Asahara* - combined Buddhism and yoga with apocalyptic Christian End Times
mythology, resulting in a potent religious brew that appealed strongly to
Japan's disaffected young adults, who believed the Land of the Rising Sun
had lost its soul in pursuit of the Almighty Yen. Declaring himself to be
the reincarnation of both the Christ and the Buddha, Shoko saw his movement
as a potential New Order. Then he started stockpiling weapons and murdering
political opponents, disposing of their bodies in a giant microwave oven
built for this express purpose. On February 27th of this year, just one
year and a few weeks ago, Shoko was finally found *guilty*
<http://www.religionnewsblog.com/6223-.html> and sentenced to death for his
crimes. The case has been appealed to Japan's Supreme Court. For some
reason, Japan still allows Aum to exist. The cult maintains impressive
membership numbers, though the've changed their name to *Aleph
<http://www.apologeticsindex.org/a06.html#chronology> *in an attempt to
start fresh.

***

On this day in *2000*, *Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin*, a former Black Panther
once known as *H. Rap Brown*, is captured after murdering Georgia sheriff's
deputy *Ricky Kinchen* and critically wounding Deputy *Aldranon English*,
both of whom are black.
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