PARACULTURAL CALENDAR FOR OCTOBER 21

[Mark Thibodeau]

 <http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h52/Tiktaalik/ValentichImg.jpg>

On this day, in the year *1520*, world explorer *Magellan* first discovers
the *Straits of Magellan*, and his mind is, like, totally blown by the
coincidence!

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On this day in *1879*, in his Menlo Park, New Jersey lab, half-mad
inventor *Thomas
Edison* first shows off his new-fangled flameless illumination flask, soon
to be known as the light-bulb.

***

On this day in *1921*, President *Warren G. Harding* delivers the first
speech by a sitting President against lynching in the Deep South. It
doesn’t work.

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On this day in *1921*, director *George Melford*'s silent film *The Sheik*,
starring *Rudolph Valentino*, premiers. Soaked panties ensue.

***

On this day in *1931*, the *Sakurakai*, a secret society in the Imperial
Japanese Army, launches an abortive coup d'état attempt. Pretty lame secret
society, there, guys…

***

On this day in *1940*, the first edition of *Ernest Hemingway*’s novel *For
Whom the Bell Tolls* is published. The ending of that novel still has the
power to piss readers off.

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On this day in *1944*, the first kamikaze attack takes place when a
Japanese plane carrying a 440 lb bomb attacks HMAS Australia off Leyte
Island as the Battle of Leyte Gulf begins.

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On this day in *1945*, women are allowed to vote in France for the first
time.

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On this day in *1959*, President *Dwight D. Eisenhower* signs an executive
order transferring *Wernher von Braun* and other German (and yes, NAZI)
scientists from the United States Army to the “civilian” organization, NASA.

***

On this day in the year *1969*, in the African nation of Somalia, the
deeply corrupt government is overthrown in a bloodless coup. Since then,
thanks mostly to the excellent marketing efforts of the world's shadiest
international arms dealers, Somalia's subsequent coups have been a hell of
a lot more bloody.

***

On this day in *1978*, Australian civilian pilot *Frederick Valentich* vanishes
in a Cessna 182 over the Bass Strait south of Melbourne, after reporting
contact with an unidentified aircraft.

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On this day in *1995*, President *William Jefferson Clinton* signs a
classified presidential order “directing the Departments of Justice, State
and Treasury, the National Security Council, the CIA, and other
intelligence agencies to increase and integrate their efforts against
international money laundering by terrorists and criminals.” It was the
first serious effort by the US to track bin Laden’s businesses. All in all,
it wasn't exactly a roaring success.

***

On this day in *2001*, a *Washington Post* article hints at the US
government’s use of *rendition and torture*. Among the alternative
strategies reported to be under discussion were drugs, pressure tactics and
extraditing the suspects to allied countries where security services employ
threats to family members and resort to torture. Unbeknownst to the public
at large, the CIA had already been renditioning suspects to countries known
for practicing torture, and had made arrangements with NATO countries to
increase the number of such renditions, no ifs, ands or buts about it.

***

On this day in *2003*, images of the dwarf planet *Eris* are taken and
subsequently used in documenting its discovery by the team of *Michael E.
Brown*, *Chad Trujillo*, and *David L. Rabinowitz*.
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