PARACULTURAL CALENDAR FOR OCTOBER 16

On this day in 1384, an exceptional lady by the name of Jadwiga is crowned King of Poland, even though she's a woman.

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On this day in 1793, Marie-Antoinette loses her head to a French revolutionary guillotine. Two hundred and twenty-or-so years later, the enshrined ruling classes seem to have forgotten this valuable historic lesson. Perhaps a refresher course is in order.

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On this day in 1859, American anti-American terrorist John Brown launches an attack on the federal armory in Harper's Ferry, Virginia. His plan was for his small cadre of men to seize the many weapons being stored there, head south, and arm the slaves for a general revolt. Brown's men captured the armory, but soon found themselves unable to escape. After being captured, Brown was sentenced to die by the noose. Though he was white, Brown relished the idea of becoming a martyr for the abolitionist (anti-slavery) cause, and thus refused rescue when one of his accomplices managed to take over the jail where he was being held. On his dying day, Brown wrote: "I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think, vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it might be done." The Civil War would soon follow, and with it, the end of slavery.

But, soon after Jim Crowe laws! White men sure take issue with Black men and women having self determination. I won't even ATTEMPT to explain the rest of the history.

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On this day in 1916, in Brooklyn, New York, Margaret Sanger opens the first family planning clinic in the United States.

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On this day in 1923, the Walt Disney Company is founded by Walt Disney and his brother, Roy Disney. Mass social engineering technique refinement and occult-tinged mind control experiments ensue.

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File this one in the "THAT didn't take long" file. On this day in 1951, the first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan, is assassinated in Rawalpindi.

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On this day in 1962, the Cuban missile crisis between the United States, Cuba, and the Soviet Union begins in earnest when US President John F. Kennedy is shown photographs of missile sites in Cuba.

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On this day in 1964, China detonates its first nuclear weapon.

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On this day in 1968, US athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos are kicked off the US team for participating in the 1968 Olympics Black Power salute. See above.

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On this day in 1970, in response to the October Crisis terrorist kidnapping, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau of Canada invokes the War Measures Act.

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On this day in 1978, a Polish Catholic priest named Karol Wojtyla is elected Pope John Paul II after the October 1978 Papal conclave, the first non-Italian pontiff since 1523.

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On this day in 1991, some loony-toons by the name of George Hennard runs amok at Luby’s Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, killing 23 and wounding 20.

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On this day in 1995, the Million Man March takes place in Washington, DC.