Paracultural Calender May 5

[Mark Thibodeau]

On this day in *1260*, the cunning *Kublai Khan* seizes control of the vast
Mongol Empire, which extends from the Black Sea all the way to the Pacific
coast, including most of China, half the Middle East and all of Central
Asia. And yet he still made time to be a good host to explorer *Marco Polo*...
for over seventeen years!

*****

Two of the most influential philosophers of all time are born on this day.
First, in *1813*, Christian existentialist *Soren Kierkegaard* is born in
Denmark. The father of communism, *Karl Marx*, is born in Germany, five
years later in *1818*.

*****

On this day in *1821*, Emperor *Napoleon I* dies in exile on the island of
Saint Helena in the South Atlantic. To this day, he remains one of the most
influential World Historic figures of all time, leaving behind a legal,
social, military and cultural legacy that simply cannot be over-stated. To
teach one's self about the life of *Napoleon Bonaparte*
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon#Legacy> is to teach one's self the
foundational history of the Modern world.

*****

On this day in *1920*, police arrest Italian-born anarchists *Nicola Sacco*
 and *Bartolomeo Vanzetti* for allegedly murdering two men during a botched
bank robbery in Braintree, Massachusetts. Their subsequent trials, appeals
and executions are the focal-point of one of the biggest justice-related
brou-ha-ha's in the history of the USA. I'm talking
scores-of-people-dying-in-revenge-bombings big. It made the reaction
to the *Rodney
King* verdict look tame by comparison.

*****

On this day in *1925*, biology teacher *John Scopes* is arrested for
teaching evolutionary theory to his students in Dayton, Tennessee. This
leads to the *Scopes Monkey Trial*, widely considered one of the most
controversial and impactful judicial exhibitions (if not decisions) of the
20th century. What few people know is that the whole thing was *a set-up*
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopes_Trial#Butler_Act> from the get-go.

*****

On this day in *1981*, Irish activist *Bobby Sands* dies in the Long Kesh
prison hospital after a 66 day hunger-strike. He was 27 years old.

*****

The videogame *Wolfenstein 3D*, the first-ever "first-person shooter", is
released on this day in *1992*, leading inexorably to *all kinds of
craziness* <http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0777958.html>.
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