PARACULTURAL CALENDAR FOR SEPTEMBER 1

[Mark Thibodeau]

<https://googlingtheholocaust.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/yellow-stars-of-david.jpg>


On this day in the year *1939, *Germany invades Poland, sparking *World War
II*. Two years later, on this day in *1941*,*Hitler* makes it obligatory
for all Jews to wear the yellow star insignia. And, finally, on this day in
*1945*, three weeks after having two atomic bombs dropped on them, the
Japanese officially surrender, finally putting an end to World War II. Nice
fucking century we just went through, wasn't it?

***

On this day in *1983*, Korean Airlines flight *KAL 007* from New York to
Seoul strays 200 miles off course, bringing it almost directly over a top
secret Soviet military base in Kamchatka. Soviet radar technicians suspect
the commercial flight might be a spy plane, so they dispatch two fighter
jets to intercept. The fighters can't get a response to communication
requests, so they launch heat-seekers and shoot it down, sending 269
passengers and crew to a fiery/watery doom in the Sea of Japan. Responding
with outrage, President *Ronald Reagan* declared the Soviets had: "turned
against the world and the moral precepts which guide human relations among
people everywhere." Five years later, on *July 3, 1988*, an American
warship in the Persian Gulf shoots down an Iranian Airbus 300 carrying 290
civilian passengers, none of whom survive. "I will never apologize for the
United States; I don't care what the facts are," said then-presidential
candidate *George Herbert Walker "Poppy" Bush*.

***

On this day, in *1985*, a French-led submarine expedition discovers the
wreckage of the *Titanic*, fucking up one of the few great mysteries of the
Modern age.
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