Illuminati-R-Us

September 5th 1984 – STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery lands after its maiden voyage

September 5th 1548 - death of Catherine Parr, a wife of Henry VIII. She kept her head better than most, outliving him by a year and eight months, and was the first woman to publish under her own name in English in England

We're a day late, but this one is too important to miss: September 8 1966, first airing of the first episode of Star Trek.

And it was accompanied by a statement that February, 2022, would see the second season of Picard, Stark Trek Geriatrics.

21st PM/22nd AM September 2007 - your correspondent attends the last of Prince’s sold out 21 night stint at the O2 Arena in London, for an outstanding concert of approx 2.5 hours. Immediately afterwards he adjourned to the Indigo club for the after show, where he enjoyed a 3.5/4 hour performance of deep cuts and unexpected covers which was opened by Amy Winehouse singing, accompanied by Prince on guitar. Mind blowing stuff, and a very long day for those of us who just went along never mind those who played it all.

70 years ago, founding of the German Federal Constitutional Court, our watchdog against the State's tendency to overstep the bounds of citizen's rights.

On this day in history, 3 October 1990, the DDR turned off the lights and became part of the BRD.

BRD

Arneb wrote:BRD

Fixed. It must have been muscle memory from typing DDR

The first volume in the Hitchhiker's Guide To the Galaxy series was published on this day, 42 years ago.

Love those books, and his others.

Also on October 12th, 1492 this time, Christopher Columbus's first expedition lands in The Bahamas.

80 years ago today, the first train with more than 1000 Jews crammed into cattle transport coaches left the station of Berlin-Grunewald for the East. Hundreds more were to follow. The first contingent were brought to Riga, and shot on arrival. Later, most trains either left for Theresienstadt (with Jewish celebrities, Jews married to 'Aryans', or Jews who had been decorated in WW 1) or straight for Auschwitz (most everyone else).

On June 19, 1943, Joseph Goebbels, in his capacity of NSDAP Gauleiter (regional subdivision head) of Berlin, would declare Berlin judenfrei (Jew-free). He was wrong, as always. More than 7,000 Jews had escaped deportation and lived in Berlin illegally, under constant threat of death or deportation, with no food stamps or access to air shelters in a city under continuous bombardment, clinging on to dear life.

One of them was Lissa Bauer, an unassuming teenager at the time. She and her mother survived, and she went on to be a musician and cultural figure in what was to become West Berlin, giving piano lessons as well as breathing and yoga courses. Four decades after her ordeal ended, she became the piano teacher of an utterly unremarkable pubescent boy and his mother, who both truly sucked at piano but who were fascinated, almost mesmerized by her magnetic and inspiring personality.

She was the one person I ever smoked pot with, the person to whom I confided my unending infatuation with a girl that didn't love me back (oh, Richard_A could tell you stories of that one), a person who opened a different, somewhat alien, world for me. She gave a huge party for her 65th birthday, it must have been around '93, '94, and that was the last time I met her. She disappeared out of my life, and I don't know what became of her. She would be in her 90s now, and quite possibly, she isn't anymore. Google turns up nothing except a few beautiful photos taken by an American decades ago.

So thanks, Lissa. Thank you for surviving the horrors, thank you for giving the finger to all the fuckheads up in the Nazi Party, thank you for being just fucking better than all those fucktards and ass-fucks with their uniforms, their black leather coats, their handguns and all their murderous fuckwittery. Thanks for making it to give piano lessons, at sixty DM an hour but always unconcerned about extending it at leasure when necessary, to an utter failure at the keyboard like me.

Thanks to my wonderful parents for shelling out the money every week, no questions asked. Thank you for making it through Hell, Lissa, and thank you, thank you so much for having me, of all people, over for some lessons on a life truly well lived.

That is quite a life and quite a story.

Heid the Ba wrote:That is quite a life and quite a story.

Precisely this. It must have been something to have your life intertwine with hers.

Thank you for sharing that.

I missed a few.

25 October 1415 (I assume Julian calendar, I don't think historical dates are retroactively Gregorianised, are they?) - Agincourt. Henry V's army defeats the French.

26 October 1881 - the gunfight at the OK corral.

27 October 371 - Constantine had his vision of the cross, leading to the Christianisation of the Roman Empire.

28 October 1440 - Beijing becomes the capital of China when the forbidden city is completed.

60 years ago today, West Germany and Turkey signed the famous Anwerbeabkommen (recruiting agreement). It allowed us to open recruiting offices in Turkey and gave Turkish workers a secure residence status. The plan was, of course, to have the Turkish workers work their butts off for a few years, stay together in communal accomodation and have them ferried back as soon as they had done their share to feed the Wirtschaftswunder.

It turned out very different. Although turks and their children suffered havy discrimination, they have won their place in society. There are millions of Germans of Turkish descent now, one of whom might have become our Foreign Secretary four years ago, and while there have been uneasy times in the relationships with both Turkey, the country, and the Turkish-born people living here, it has been a success, by and large.

Here is a somewhat iconic picture of Turks standing at the production line of Germany's largest Ford car plant. These were tough times for them, but they prevailed.

9th of November,

1848,...
1918,...
1938,...
1989,...

Busy day for us ober here.

Arneb wrote:9th of November,

1848,...
1918,...
1938,...
1989,...

Busy day for us ober here.

1923

Absolutely! Fits excellently with the Janus-headed nature of that day.

Armistice Day, 103 years ago.

In less somber news, the first beer brewed according to the Pilsener brewing process was served on this day in 1842 in, of course, Pilsen (or Plzeň, as it is exclusively referred to nowadays).
In an eerily inappropriate way, the Catholic German regions celebrate the beginning of the carnival season on the 11th of the 11th at 11 past 11. Pompous Papist piffle, I says.

November 12th, 1912 – the frozen bodies of Robert Scott and his men are found on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica

November 13th, 1715 - the Battle of Sherrifmuir, part of the Jacobite rising of that year. Low scoring draw, arguably a slight strategic win for the bad guys. Much written about, including a song by Robert Burns.

November 16th, 1093 - Queen Margaret of Scotland dies three days after her husband and eldest son were killed at the battle of Alnwick. It was said she died of grief. 180 or so years later she became the only member of Scottish royalty to be made a saint, and Dunfermline (where she was buried and a place well known to both Scottish members here) became a centre of pilgrimage.

One year ago today, death of Diego Armando Maradona, aged 60, in one of the more colourful sagas of talent, exaltation, raving success, deceit, downfall, abuse, farce and tragedy of the century.

Forty nine years ago today the last Apollo mission left the moon. Forty nine years . . .