Paracultural Calendar for May 11

[Mark Thibodeau]

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On this day in *1310*, 54 members of the *Knights Templar* are burned at
the stake as heretics in France. However, the 23rd and final "official"
Grand Master of the Templars - *Jacques DeMolay* - survives nearly four
more years before ultimately meeting a similar fiery fate on March 13, 1314.

*****

On this day in *1812*, Prime Minister *Spencer Perceval* is
assassinated by *John
Bellingham* in the lobby of the House of Commons, London. He is the first,
and so far only, British Prime Minister to be assassinated while serving.
Historian*Andro Linklater*'s latest tome is controversially titled *Why
Spencer Perceval Had to Die*
<http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/05/08/review-why-spencer-perceval-had-to-die-the-assassination-of-a-british-prime-minister/>,
painting a not-so-likable portrait of the doomed PM, whereas *this
Telegraph UK editorial*
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/9233091/Spencer-Perceval-deserves-better-from-posterity.html>
claims
he deserves to be remembered for more than just being assassinated.

*****

On this day in *1916*, after nearly a year spent re-working some of the
mathematics involved, renowned theoretical physicist and "world's smartest
man" *Albert Einstein* presents his *Theory of General Relativity* to his
peers. Basically, Einstein's conception of relativity is a geometric theory
of gravitation, and it remains the current description of gravitation in
modern physics. According to Wikipedia: "General relativity generalizes
special relativity and *Newton*'s law of universal gravitation, providing a
unified description of gravity as a geometric property of space and time,
or space-time. In particular, the curvature of spacetime is directly
related to the energy and momentum of whatever matter and radiation are
present. The relation is specified by the Einstein field equations, a
system of partial differential equations." Simple, no? Of course, there are
quite a few people who believe the whole thing is just a bunch of high
quackery, and they opened a *web forum*
<http://www.anti-relativity.com/forum/index.php> to air alternative views.

*****

On this day in *1927*, showbiz pioneer *Louis B Mayer* forms the *Academy
of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences*, without which we would have had no
idea that *The English Patient*, *Titanic* and *Shakespeare in Love* were
some of the finest films ever made, despite the preponderance of evidence
to the contrary.

*****

On this day in *1949*, the freshly-minted nation of *Israel* joins the *United
Nations*. Eleven years later, on this day in*1960*, four Israeli
*Mossad* agents
capture fugitive Nazi technocrat *Adolf Eichmann*, one of the architects of
the "Final Solution to the Jewish Problem". Eichmann had been living in
Buenos Aires, Argentina, under the alias: *Ricardo Klement*. There is no
way in Hell he was the only high-ranking Nazi to escape Europe in this way,
as future posts here at the Useless Eater Blog will hopefully prove to you,
beyond any reasonable factor of doubt.

*****

On this day in *1997*, *IBM*'s chess-playing supercomputer *Deep Blue* defeats
Russian chess champ *Garry Kasparov*in the last game of the rematch,
becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player in a
classic match format. After *SkyNet* takes over the world, this will
probably be declared an official "Robot Holiday" or something. You just
know those shiny metal bastards are going to relish rubbing our noses in it.

*****

On this day in *1981*, Jamaican music pioneer and Rastafarian
prophet/saint *Bob
Marley* dies of cancer at the age of 36... or *does he?!*
<http://astrid-conspiracy.blogspot.ca/2007/07/bob-marley-brain-cancer-or-murder_02.html>

*****

On this day in *1988*, British spy *Kim Philby* dies in Moscow, where he
"retired" after being sniffed out as a *communist double-agent*
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Philby> for the Soviet Union. His life
story, at the provided link, is damn fascinating. The Rooskies even gave
him a postage stamp! Check it out!

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