THIS DAY IN HISTORY!

[LongRider]

21 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

I withdraw my objection.

No worries!  I did forget, it was good you noticed.  

[dog-days]

Cheating by using today's Google Doodle, but it was a nice one. The best kind really – introduced me to someone I'd never heard of who did good work. Ferdinand Berthier (born September 30th 1803) was an early campaigner for the deaf and advocate of deaf culture. I went to Project Gutenberg and with the help of machine translation am skimming one of his books, a biography of the Abbe de l'Epée, the founder of what would become the National Institute for Deaf Children. 

The book seems quite rambling and name-checks a lot of people rather like a modern TV awards ceremony. Still, I've come across one good (not totally reliable) story in Chapter 12 through 18 – in which an abandoned deaf-mute boy of twelve or thirteen is identified as the Comte de Solar, who was assumed to have died of small pox. Berthier is very partial to the boy for the sake of his subject, de l'Epée, who championed his claim. In fact, l'Epée's ward was ultimately declared to be an imposter. When the grave of the child Solar was opened, the remains were found to possess a crooked tooth that the allies of Not-Solar had taken as proof of the stray's identity. 

It's called the Affaire Solar and seems fairly well-known, especially on the French internet, though has passed me by till now. 

In Berthier's version of the story, the fake Solar went on to join the army and died on the field of battle due to being unable to hear the signal to retreat. (One of those anecdotes that two centuries of changing tastes has made bathetic rather than tragic.) 

Edited September 30, 2023 by dog-days

[LongRider]

30 September

1791  The opera The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart premiered in Vienna.

1803  Ferdinand Berthier deaf educator born this day Saône-et-Loire, France.

1927  Babe Ruth becomes the first baseball player to hit 60 home runs in a season.

1939 The notorious Munich Agreement, in which Britain's Neville Chamberlain encouraged Britain and France to appease Adolf Hitler's demands in the hope of preventing World War II, was reached on this day in 1938.

1949  The Berlin Airlift ends.

1949   Mao Zedong, proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China on this day in 1949.

2004 The first images of a live giant squid in its natural habitat are taken 600 miles south of Tokyo.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

1888 Jack the Ripper presumably kills two women, Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes, on one day.

1946 Sentencing in the Nuremberg trials for the main actors begins.

1960 The first episode of the Flintstones gets aired on ABC.

2005 Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten publishes its Mohammed carricatures.

Happy Birthday: Truman Capote (*1924)

RIP James Dean (1955)

[LongRider]

1 October

1791 First session of the French Legislative Assembly.

1829 South African College is founded in Cape Town, South Africa; it will later separate into the University of Cape Town and the South African College Schools.

1843  The News of the World tabloid begins publication in London.

1957 First appearance of In God We Trust on U.S. paper currency.

1974 The Watergate cover-up trial opens in Washington, D.C., before U.S. District Court Judge John J. Sirica; involving the events that forced the resignation of Richard M. Nixon.

1982  Sony launches the first consumer compact disc player (model CDP-101).

 

1924 Jimmy Carter, former US president, born this day in Plains, Georgia.

[LongRider]

2 October

1187  Siege of Jerusalem: Saladin captures Jerusalem after 88 years of Crusader rule.

1836  Naturalist Charles Darwin returned to England this day in 1836 after a five-year journey on the HMS Beagle,

1937  Dominican Republic strongman Rafael Trujillo orders the execution of the Haitian population living within the borderlands; approximately 20,000 are killed over the next five days.

1959  The anthology series The Twilight Zone premieres on CBS television.

1967  Thurgood Marshall was sworn in as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming its first African American member.

1869 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in Porbandar, India this day.

 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

17 minutes ago, LongRider said:

1959  The anthology greatest TV series ever not named The Simpsons The Twilight Zone premieres on CBS television.

FTFY

[Phylum of Alexandria]

3 October, 1995: Former running back O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murder of his ex-wife and her friend.

Looking back on the case now, I can see some validity to the jury's decision, at least with respect to whether the high bar of "guilt beyond a reasonable doubt" was cleared, especially given the flagrant display of racism by detective Mark Fuhrman that was caught on tape. Surely that ugliness could have planted reasonable doubt as to Simpson's guilt.

But beyond the technicalities of a criminal trial, did OJ actually murder those people? Almost certainly. He basically admitted it later on, by way of his prurient "speculative fiction" book If I Did It. 

Maybe it resonates with me all the more now given that we're dealing with a similar phenomenon right now with Donald Trump. The guy is clearly, obviously guilty. Whether that meets the standards for a court of law is a different matter, but in the court of available facts and reasonable public opinion, he has clearly behaved wrongly, even monstrously. 

But given that he has come to serve as a symbol for people who are angry with the status quo, he is seen as an innocent martyr by those people. Decades later they will finally admit that they knew it (assuming they're still alive to do so) and were simply expressing their anger, but for now the plain facts are set aside for the symbolic psychodrama that animates them. Therefore he is "innocent" and the game is "rigged" against him. Just like it was for OJ.

 

 

[LongRider]

3 October

42 BC  First Battle of Philippi: Triumvirs Mark Antony and Octavian fight a decisive battle with Caesar’s assassins Brutus and Cassius.

1904  Mary McLeod Bethune opens the Daytona Literary and Industrial Training School for Black girls in Florida. Initially there were six students. Within a year there were more than 30. It's now Bethune Cookman university.

1908  The Pravda newspaper is founded by Leon Trotsky, Adolph Joffe, Matvey Skobelev and other Russian exiles in Vienna.

1942  Spaceflight: The first successful launch of a V-2 /A4-rocket from Test Stand VII at Peenemünde, Germany. It is the first man-made object to reach space.

1957  Allen Ginsberg’s Howl and Other Poems is ruled not obscene.

1990  East and West Germany reunified this date.

1954  Dennis Eckersley, American baseball player, incredible relief pitcher, was born this day.

 

[LongRider]

5 October

1582  Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day does not exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.

1789  Thousands of women instigate and lead the March on Versailles. They - along with revolutionaries who join them - besiege the Palace to demand cheap bread. The march is considered to have an impact on a par with the fall of the Bastille in terms of the French Revolution.

1793  French Revolution: Christianity is disestablished in France.

1877  Chief Joseph surrenders his Nez Perce band to General Nelson A. Miles.

1969  The British television series Monty Python's Flying Circus debuted on the BBC and proved to be a watershed for TV comedy around the world.

1983  Lech Wałęsa, leader of Poland's Solidarity union, received the Nobel Prize for Peace.

 

 

[Corvinus85]

5 October

1970 - launch of PBS, the Public Broadcasting Service, in the US.

 

1143 - the Kingdom of Portugal's independence is recognized by King Alfonso VII of León in the Treaty of Zamora. The kingdom had been founded in 1139.

1910 - the monarchy in Portugal ends with the installation of the First Portuguese Republic.

 

[LongRider]

6 October

1927  The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson, premiered in New York City, introducing the sound era of motion pictures.

1995  51 Pegasi is discovered to be the first major star apart from the Sun to have a planet (and extrasolar planet) orbiting around it.

1973  The Yom Kippur War begins.

2009  Hilary Mantel wins the Booker prize for the first time with her historical novel 'Wolf Hall'.

edt: late entry    

1998   Matthew Shepard was beaten and left for dead — tied to a fence in Wyoming.  He died 10/12

Edited October 6, 2023 by LongRider

[A Horse Named Stranger]

1434 Cosimo de Medici returns from his banishment to Florence. Laying the groundwork for a dynasty that would rule the city for around 300 years.

1848 Wiener Volksaufstand (Vienna uprising? I guess) take place. Parts of the army were not willing to go to war against the revolting Hungary. Theodor Baillet von Tour, the minister of war, gets lynched.

1860 During the second Opium War the British army conquers Beijing. In the following the days the Old and the New Summer Palace get looted

1875 Sultan Abd ül-Asis declares the Osman Empire bankrupt due to its high debts.

1889 Paris. The Moulin Rouge opens.

Happy Birthday Levon Aronian (*1982)

Edited October 6, 2023 by A Horse Named Stranger

[dog-days]

1 hour ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

1434 Cosimo de Medici returns from his banishment to Florence. Laying the groundwork for a dynasty that would rule the city for around 300 years.

1848 Wiener Volksaufstand (Vienna uprising? I guess) take place. Parts of the army were not willing to go to war against the revolting Hungary. Theodor Baillet von Tour, the minister of war, gets lynched.

1860 During the second Opium War the British army conquers Beijing. In the following the days the Old and the New Summer Palace get looted

1875 Sultan Abd ül-Asis declares the Osman Empire bankrupt due to its high debts.

1889 Paris. The Moulin Rouge opens.

Happy Birthday Levon Aronian (*1982)

Didn't realise German had taken a more authentic route with the Osmanlı Devleti than English. God knows how English got from Osman to Ottoman. Maybe some leap involving a mispronunciation of the Arabic Uthman. 

[Fragile Bird]

3 hours ago, LongRider said:

6 October

1973  The Yon Kipper War begins.

 

That is probably the most hilarious spell-check correction I have ever seen!

Try Yom Kippur.

”Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look; He thinks too much”

”Kippers: fish that like a lot of sleep”

 

[LongRider]

2 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

Try Yom Kippur.

Want to know how to find out if folks are reading your posts?  Misspell something, works like a charm.   
Thanks, will edit.  
 

Where is @Tywin et al. when you need him?

Edited October 6, 2023 by LongRider

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

I didn't ask for any of this. And clearly your journey with the bird and horse ended in you all dying from dysentery. 

[LongRider]

5 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

I didn't ask for any of this. And clearly your journey with the bird and horse ended in you all dying from dysentery. 

How did you know that?   Amazing.   

[LongRider]

7 October

3761 BC  The epoch reference date epoch (origin) of the modern Hebrew calendar (Proleptic Julian calendar).

1862  Royal Columbian Hospital (RCH) opens as the first hospital in the Canadian province of British Columbia

1870  Franco-Prussian War – Siege of Paris: Leon Gambetta flees Paris in a balloon.

1959  U.S.S.R. probe Luna 3 transmits the first ever photographs of the far side of the Moon.

1996  Fox News Channel, a satellite and cable news network created by Roger Ailes for Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, was launched in the United States.

2006  Russian journalist Anna Politkovskava is assassinated in her Moscow apartment block. She had been doggedly reporting on human rights abuses by Russian forces in Chechnya.

1931  Desmond Tutu born in Klerksdorp, South Africa this day.

1952  Russian politician Vladimir Putin president of Russia, was born.

 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

How could you mis October 7th, 2020, the day a fly landed on Mike Pence's head during the VP debate.