On this day in
1917, England's
King George V issues a Proclamation stating that the male line descendants of the British Royal Family will bear the surname
Windsor. This is done to remove the Teutonic stink from their "royal house", due to rising anti-German sentiment over the First (and eventually, the Second) World War(s).
***
On this day in
1918, in Russia, the Bolshevik Party orders - and the Cheka carries out - the murders of emperor
Nicholas II and his family. After the deed is done, the victims' bodies are dipped in acid, set on fire, then dumped down an abandoned mine shaft in an undisclosed location, to prevent loyalists from having bodies over which to grieve. Rumors soon began to spread, however, so the murderers retrieved the bodies with the intent of dumping them down a different mine shaft, far away. The vehicle in which they were transporting the bodies broke down along the way, however, and the conspirators had to settle on burying the bodies in a sealed pit 12 miles outside Yekaterinburg. In 1981 Nicholas and his family are canonized as saints by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. The bodies remained undiscovered until
1991, soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Finally, after a long, strange post-life - and, not so coincidentally, on the 80th anniversary of their murder - the Romanovs' remains are buried in St. Catherine Chapel on this day in
1998.
***
On this day in
1945, the leaders of the three Allied nations,
Winston Churchill,
Harry Truman and
Joseph Stalin, meet in the German city of Potsdam to decide the future of a defeated Germany.
***
On this day in
1955, animation industry titan
Walt Disney's ambitions for total world domination take a big step forward when he first opens
Disneyland, his fully-realized, 160-acre model of the Utopian ideal to which he believes all of mankind should aspire. Today, on the American continent alone, Disney's combined Florida and California properties span an impressive 70 square miles, dwarfing the
Vatican in both surface area and cultural influence. Can a request to the U.N. for recognition of statehood be far behind?
***
On this day in the year
1967, planet Earth passes through some kind of radioactive space cloud that mangles the very fabric of space and time, causing everybody to go slightly bonkers. Milk goes sour in the bottle, toads rain down from the sky, and, perhaps worst of all, guitar legend
Jimi Hendrix plays a concert where he's the opening act for… the fuckin'
MONKEYS!!!
***
On this day in
1985, the EUREKA Network for research and development of new technologies and financial markets is founded by former heads of state
François Mitterrand (France) and
Helmut Kohl (Germany). A cursory examination of the organization makes it seem relatively harmless - even somewhat
inspiring - but I'm pretty sure there's a great potential for some James Bond level villainy behind the scenes, there.
***
On this day in
1986, White House Chief of Staff
Donald Regan says imposing economic sanctions on the Apartheid government of South Africa wouldn't work because "American women" would never be willing to "give up all their jewelry". One year later, after being forced out of his job due to clashes with the First Lady, Regan would reveal to the world both
Nancy Reagan's increasing influence on the President's decision-making process, as well as her frequent consultations with personal astrologer
Joan Quigley for advice on national affairs.
***
On this day in
1996, Paris-bound
TWA Flight 800 explodes in mid-air off the coast of Long Island, New York, killing all 230 on board. The authorities urge everyone to "move along" because there is "nothing to see here." Of course, as usual, the authorities are (ahem)
full of shit. Or
are they? You be the judge, I suppose, in this, the
grandaddy of all Internet Conspiracy Theories..
