PARACULTURAL CALENDAR FOR MAY 18

[Mark Thibodeau]

 <http://brianabbott.net/media/photos/travels/1994/POSTCRD1.jpg>

On this day in *1152*, *King Henry II* of England marries *Eleanor of
Aquitaine*, an *incredibly fascinating*
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine> world-historic person
in her own right.

*****

On this day in *1804*, *Napoleon Bonaparte* is proclaimed Emperor of the
French by the French Senate, which kind of flies in the face of the ideals
behind the entire Revolutionary Project, but whatever.

*****

On this day in *1896*, a mass panic on Khodynka Field in Moscow during the
festivities of the coronation of Russian *Tsar Nicholas II* on the day of
his 28th birthday results in the deaths of... hold on, can this be right?
1,389 people?! Sheez, that must have been some serious-ass panicking!

*****

On this day in *1910*, the Earth passes through the tail of *Halley's Comet*.
Despite many contemporaneous prophecies to the contrary, life as we know it
does not cease to exist right then and there.

*****

On this day in *1927*, 45 second-to-sixth graders are killed and 58 more
are wounded when a huge cache of explosives planted by anti-tax
activist *Andrew
Kehoe* explodes beneath a school in Bath, Michigan. It took Kehoe a year to
plan his atrocity, and months to pack the school full of explosives which
he then detonated remotely, herding his victims for maximum carnage, before
blowing up his own shrapnel-packed car with himself inside it. He even
issued a number of vague threats before doing the dirty deed, but nobody
caught on.

*****

On this day in *1944*, the Soviet Union exiles more than 200,000 Tartars
from Crimea because they were collaborating with the Nazis. And to think…
the only thing the USA did with *their* Nazi collaborators - *Preznit Dubya*'s
grand-daddy being chief among them - was give them a slap on the wrist and
hand their descendants the keys to the White House. It's kind of funny, in
an utterly fucking disgusting kind of way.

*****

On this day in *1974*, *India* becomes the sixth nation in world history to
explode an atomic bomb... not counting Atlantis.

*****

On this day in *1980*, *Mount Saint Helens* erupts, gushing forth billions
of gallons of volcanic ash, killing between 57 and 65 people (depending who
you ask) and blasting away a huge chunk of the mountainside.

*****

On this day in *1995*, a crystal-meth-addicted, half-psychotic,
authority-hating Army vet named *Shawn Nelson* steals an M60 Patton Tank
from a National Guard base in San Diego and goes on a rampage, destroying
cars, fire hydrants and other property before being gunned down by police
after getting stuck on a median.
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