Some Gleanings from Today in History with Some Sarcastic Comments and Some Serious.
On this day in ...
1768 – In London, Philip Astley stages the first modern circus. Though the word and concept was ancient, a new meaning began to emerge, giving rise to 250 years of political satire.
1796 – Georges Cuvier delivers the first paleontological lecture. In the first 30 minutes, he taught the audience how to pronounce "paleontology." Some attendees could not master the concept and simply learned to slur their speech when the need arose to use the word. Many of these became judges.
1814 – Napoleon abdicates for the first time and names his son Napoleon II as Emperor of the French. He then, took an extended island vacation, rewrote his own history, and prepared to return.
1841 – William Henry Harrison dies of pneumonia, becoming the first President of the United States to die in office, and setting the record for the briefest administration. Vice President John Tyler succeeds Harrison as President. It is hard to make any sort of joke about that.
1850 – Los Angeles is incorporated as a city. It is hard not to make a joke about that, but I will resist since I really like Los Angeles.
1905 – In India, an earthquake hits the Kangra Valley, killing 20,000, and destroying most buildings in Kangra, McLeod Ganj and Dharamshala. Many have forgotten. Many never noticed. The people of India noticed. Distance, both geographical and cultural, often dims our view and stifles our concern. Yet, the world is getting smaller and what effects one effects the other more than in the past I wonder if that could ever be a bad thing.
1949 – Cold War: Twelve nations sign the North Atlantic Treaty creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. They did this in spite of the fact that a future U.S. President might object and take it personally.
1967 – Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" speech in New York City's Riverside Church. It was a significant moment. Dr. King stepped out of perceived role as a single-issue prophet. He could not remain silent about an issue that he had come to see as one of the pressing moral concerns if the day.
1968 – Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated by James Earl Ray at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee. It was a dark and dismal day for the planet.
1969 – Dr. Denton Cooley implants the first temporary artificial heart.
1973 – The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City are officially dedicated. They seemed so indestructible.
1975 – Microsoft is founded as a partnership between Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico. If only we could have chipped in a dollar. Of course, in subsequent years, I have chipped in quite a bit more than that.
1984 – President Ronald Reagan calls for an international ban on chemical weapons. It was a start.
2020 – China holds a national mourning day for martyrs who died in the fight against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). There will be more such days. Let us take a moment of silence.
What will happen today that will be remembered one hundred years from now?
