Paracultural Calendar for May 21

[Mark Thibodeau]

<http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-r0CiU76-Ez0/T7cq1oEOWQI/AAAAAAAAAuA/NqX9K5c2isU/s1600/DARROW.GIF>Leopold,
Darrow and LoebOn this day in *1863*, the *Seventh Day Adventist Church*
<http://www.adventist.org/> - an offshoot of the Apocalyptic creed of
*Millerite
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millerites> *Protestantism - is organized in
Battle Creek, Michigan. Today, there are over seventeen million "Sevvies"
around the world, and they are one of the most ethnically diverse branches
of the Christian faith. Seventh Day Adventists celebrate the Sabbath day on
Saturday, in the Old Testament style of the Jews, and they place a strong
emphasis on healthy eating and living. Probably the most lasting impact
that they've had on popular culture is the introduction of
ready-to-eat *breakfast
cereals* <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakfast_cereal> to the North
American diet.

*****

On this day in *1871*, French troops invade the *Paris Commune* and engage
its residents in street fighting. By the close of "Bloody Week" some 20,000
anarchist and Marxist "communards" will have been killed and 38,000
arrested. Thus ended a historic, two-month *experiment in self-rule*
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Commune> by the people of Paris.

*****

On this day in *1924*, two young, well-to-do homosexuals named *Leopold and
Loeb* murder 14 year-old *Bobby Franks*. At the time, this murder was
considered one of the vilest and most sensational crimes in U.S. history,
because the killers did it just for kicks. Defending the young murderers in
court, legendary lawyer *Clarence Darrow* claims that the boys would never
have become killers if they hadn't read the works of German
philosopher *Friedrich
Nietzsche*, whose theory of the *Ubermensch* - a highly evolved
idealization of humanity who exists above and beyond the mundane
conceptions of "good" and "evil" - he claims twisted their minds.

*****

On this day in *1946*, physicist *Louis Slotin* is blasted with a fatal
dose of radiation in a "criticality incident" during an experiment with the
aptly-named *Demon Core* - a 6.2 kilogram sub-critical mass of plutonium -
at Los Alamos National Laboratory. It was the second time that such an
incident resulted in the acute radiation poisoning and subsequent death of
a scientist. After these incidents, the core was used in an atomic bomb
test in *1946*, and proved in practice to have a slightly increased yield
over similar cores which had not been subjected to criticality excursions.
There's a dramatization of the *Slotin* incident from the movie *Fat Man
and Little Boy*.


*****

On this day in *1969*, Palestinian immigrant *Sirhan Sirhan* is sentenced
to death for killing *Robert Kennedy* in a Los Angeles restaurant kitchen.
The sentence is never carried out, as California got rid of the death
penalty.

*****

On this day in *1979*, the *White Night Riots* take place in San Francisco
following the manslaughter conviction of *Dan "Twinkie Defense" White* for
the assassinations of mayor *George Moscone* and openly gay city
councilman *Harvey
Milk*.

*****

On this day in *1981*, the Italian government releases the membership list
of *Propaganda Due*, also known as the *P2 Lodge*, a Masonic lodge
operating under the jurisdiction of the Grand Orient of Italy from 1945 to
1976 (when its charter was withdrawn), and a pseudo-Masonic or "black" or
"covert" lodge operating illegally (in contravention of Italian
constitution banning secret lodges and membership of government officials
in secret membership organizations) from 1976 to 1981. During the years
that the lodge was headed by *Licio Gelli*, P2 was implicated in numerous
Italian crimes and mysteries, including the collapse of the
Vatican-affiliated *Banco Ambrosiano*, the murders of journalist *Mino
Pecorelli* and banker *Roberto Calvi*, and corruption cases within the
nationwide bribe scandal "Tangentopoli". P2 came to light through the
investigations into the collapse of *Michele Sindona*'s financial empire.
It has also been connected to the CIA-connected European right-wing
black-ops org known as *Gladio*.
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