Paracultural Calendar for Oct 16

[Mark Thibodeau]

<http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2012/3/28/1332936684595/OLYMPICS-BLACK-POWER-SALU-008.jpg>

On this day in *1384*, an exceptional lady by the name of *Jadwiga* is
crowned King of Poland, even though she's a woman.

***

On this day in *1793*, *Marie-Antoinette* loses her head to a French
revolutionary guillotine. Two hundred and twenty-or-so years later, the
enshrined ruling classes seem to have forgotten this valuable historic
lesson. Perhaps a refresher course is in order.

***

On this day in *1859*, American anti-American terrorist *John Brown* launches
an attack on the federal armory in*Harper's Ferry, Virginia*
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brown_%28abolitionist%29>. His plan was
for his small cadre of men to seize the many weapons being stored there,
head south, and arm the slaves for a general revolt. Brown's men captured
the armory, but soon found themselves unable to escape. After being
captured, Brown was sentenced to die by the noose. Though he was white,
Brown relished the idea of becoming a martyr for the abolitionist
(anti-slavery) cause, and thus refused rescue when one of his accomplices
managed to take over the jail where he was being held. On his dying day,
Brown wrote: "I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this
guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now
think, vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it might be
done." The Civil War would soon follow, and with it, the end of slavery.

***

On this day in *1916*, in Brooklyn, New York, *Margaret Sanger* opens the
first family planning clinic in the United States.

***

On this day in *1923*, the *Walt Disney Company* is founded by *Walt
Disney* and
his brother, *Roy Disney*. Mass social engineering technique refinement and
occult-tinged mind control experiments ensue.

***

File this one in the "THAT didn't take long" file. On this day in *1951*,
the first Prime Minister of Pakistan, *Liaquat Ali Khan*, is assassinated
in Rawalpindi.

***

On this day in *1962*, the *Cuban missile crisis* between the United
States, Cuba, and the Soviet Union begins in earnest when US President *John
F. Kennedy* is shown photographs of missile sites in Cuba.

***

On this day in *1964*, China detonates its first nuclear weapon.

***

On this day in *1968*, US athletes *Tommie Smith* and *John Carlos* are
kicked off the US team for participating in the 1968 Olympics Black Power
salute. See above.

***

On this day in *1970*, in response to the October Crisis terrorist
kidnapping, Prime Minister *Pierre Trudeau* of Canada invokes the *War
Measures Act*.

***

On this day in *1978*, a Polish Catholic priest named *Karol Wojtyla* is
elected *Pope John Paul II* after the October 1978 Papal conclave, the
first non-Italian pontiff since 1523.

***

On this day in *1991*, some loony-toons by the name of *George Hennard* runs
amok at Luby’s Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, killing 23 and wounding 20.

***

On this day in *1995*, the *Million Man March* takes place in Washington,
DC.
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