Illuminati-R-Us

Arneb wrote:20 years ago today, death of Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchiker's guide to the Galaxy. At 49 years, of a heart attack.

I remember being shocked by that at the time. Now I'm thinking:

1) Christ, 20 years ago? and
2) Christ, I'm 49.

100 years ago 2 days ago: Birth of Andrey Sakharov, physicist, co-developer of the Soviet Hydrogen bomb, longt-time dissident harassaed and humiliated by the Soviet State. He became a member of Parliament during Perestroyka, and had a large Moscow Street named after him.

The organization founded in his memory wanted to stage an exhibition on his biography for the anniversary. The Sakharov Centre is filed as a Foreign Agent under Russian Law because it receives funds from outside Russia. The exhibition was forbidden to take place.

Oh, errm, and it's my country's 72nd birthday. Can't say she's looking younger than ever, but she's doing OK. A bit stiff around the hips, maybe.

26th May, 1897 - The manager of London's Lyceum Theatre has a book published. Called Dracula, it went on to be quite well known.

Mostly unrelated to my previous post - May 26th 1913, birth of Peter Cushing.

Grand Moff Tarkin to some of us.

Indeed, and I’m part of that “us”!

Lianachan wrote:Mostly unrelated to my previous post - May 26th 1913, birth of Peter Cushing.

Slightly more related to that previous post, 27th May 1922 - birth of Christopher Lee. Scaramanga/Saruman/Count Dooku to some of us.

Oh, and 27th May 1911 - birth of Vincent Price.

31st May 1916, the Battle of Jutland, RN victory, stalemate or Hochseeflotte victory, discuss.

Lianachan wrote:Slightly more related to that previous post, 27th May 1922 - birth of Christopher Lee. Scaramanga/Saruman/Count Dooku to some of us.

Lord Summerisle

Not strictly today but 1st to 10th June 1984 was Operation Blue Star the Indian Army assault on the Golden Temple in Amritsar in a search for Sikh extremists. This lead to Indira Gandhi's assassination and anti-Sikh riots which killed thousands.

June 4th 1746 - the ceremonial burning of the Jacobite Standards captured at Culloden.

The Jacobite Regimental Standards played an important role in the Rising of 1745. The regiments who fought for Prince Charles were newly formed – those that fought at Prestonpans had been in existence for only a month. They did not have a uniform and, contrary to some popular belief, there were no clan tartans at that time. So the standard was the only unifying symbol of each regiment. Furthermore, during battle, it was a rallying point – soldiers caught up in the noise, the fury and fog of battle who didn't know exactly where they were could find their way back to their comrades by following their standards. However, if a regimental standard was captured or destroyed, it meant the regiment itself had been defeated. That is why, on June 4th 1746, the Jacobite standards captured at Culloden were ceremonially burnt at the Market Cross in Edinburgh.

40 years ago today, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a report about a remarkable cluster, comprising five cases, of young homosexual men living in the Los Angeles area contracting an unusual form of pneumonia associated with a fungus, Pneumocystis carinii. Two of the patients died.

This is the first scientific report describing an AIDS-defining illness (although no-one knew that at the time). A young and eager immunologist, one Anthony Fauci, M.D., took note and started to investigate. Let's just say he made a name for himself wrt emerging infectious diseases.

Lianachan wrote:June 4th 1746 - the ceremonial burning of the Jacobite Standards captured at Culloden.

June 4 is considered an unlucky day in China, due to the events of 1989.

June 6, 1944 - Operation Overlord, consisting primary of American, British, and Canadian forces, but also including some others, begins. It was planned for the previous day, but the weather was not suitable. But the western allies controlled the Atlantic, and could forecast the weather better than the Axis forces, and saw a break coming, which would allow the invasion to take place on June 6. Had this opportunity not been seized, the next suitable time (which required a full moon and the correct tides) would have been in July. The Soviet Union, which had faced the German forces in Europe almost alone for three long years (minus a few weeks), now benefitted from a second front.

On June 6, 1799 in the Gregorian calendar, Alexander Pushkin was born in Moscow. This date was May 26 in the Julian calendar, the one used in Russia at the time.

Arneb wrote:40 years ago today, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

<asshole>
No it didn't. It was still just the Centers for Disease Control then. "and Prevention" wasn't added until 1992.
</asshole>

Spoken like a true BAUTer.

25 years ago today, Football was 'coming home', and WE WON!

Indeed you did! But at least we pushed you to penalties! And considering that "we're shite and we know we are", to lose on penalties in the semi-final, and to Germany at that, isn't so bad! A far cry from what we're likely to achieve this time round.

Hmmm, this is sounding like a Which Team Do You Support post. So back to the actual theme! On 10 June 1963, the Equal Pay Act was signed into law in the United States, prohibiting (subject to multiple exceptions) wage discrimination on the basis of gender. It would be almost 7 years before the UK did the same - and another 5 before the UK Act was actually brought into force.

by all means!

Alexander the Great seems to have died on this day in 323 B.C.

June 13th 1819 - families at Strathnaver, on the Marquis of Stafford’s Sutherland estate, were given 30 minutes to vacate their homes before the buildings were set on fire to prevent them being occupied again. The people were moved to coastal areas with the land they had formerly occupied being let to sheep farmers.

Not a "round" anniversary, but one of those days where historical developments coincide: 14 June, 1940 is the day German troops occupied Paris without a shot being fired, and the day on which the first train to Auschwitz delivered 728 Polish Gestapo prisoners to the newly built concetration camp.One certainly had a hard time then to imagine that Germany would surrender unconditionally less than five years later.

16th June 1963 – Soviet Space Program: Vostok 6 mission: Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space. And apparently the only woman to fly solo in space.

Heid the Ba wrote:16th June 1963 – Soviet Space Program: Vostok 6 mission: Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space. And apparently the only woman to fly solo in space.

And years later, she is the member of the parliament who proposes the "reset" on the count of presidential terms already served by Vladimir Putin

18th of June 1914 - a tremendous thunderstorm struck the mountains to the north of the Highland Main Line. The road bridge carrying the road from Carrbridge to Inverness across the Baddengorm Burn was swept away, while further down the valley the burn entered a narrow gorge, crossed by the railway by means of a narrow arch span of only 15 ft (4.6 m). The water was at rail level when the six-carriage 11:50 Perth to Inverness train, 9 minutes late leaving Carrbridge Station at 15:24, crossed the bridge. The first two carriages reached the other side but the bridge then gave way, its foundations having been undermined by a vortex of water. The third carriage was left on the north bank of the burn but the next was plunged into the torrent which soon demolished the carriage, drowning five passengers; remarkably four survived.

80 yeats aho today, start of Operation Barbarossa. It wasn't sowing wind, it was sowing storm.