On this day in 1884, ten inches of snow falls in New England. This was the "year without a summer," thanks to all the crap thrown into the atmosphere by the massive explosion of the island of Krakatoa, near Indonesia. Don't bother looking for it on a map... it blew up real good, and it ain't there no more.
On this day in 1934, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Securities Act into law, establishing the Securities and Exchange Commission. Ever since then, subsequent Republican administrations have done their damnedest to file down the Act's fangs.
On this day in 1984, one of the best-selling video games of all-time is released: TETRIS! It remains, to this day, the single most popular cultural artifact ever to emerge from Soviet Russia.
On this day in 1988, President George Herbert "Poppy" Walker Bush promises to provide reparations and an official apology to the thousands of Americans of Japanese descent who were held in work camps for the duration of World War II. Neither the reparations nor the apology were ever tendered.
On this day in 2002, a near-Earth asteroid estimated at 10 meters diameter explodes over the Mediterranean Sea between Greece and Libya. The resulting explosion is estimated to have a force of 26 kilotons, slightly more powerful than the Nagasaki atomic bomb. This occurred during a time of great tension between nuclear rivals Pakistan and India, leading some to speculate about what might have happened if the detonation had occurred over one of those countries. Could it have been mistaken for a nuclear first-strike? Might it have lead to an accidental retaliation? Who knows? All I know is, now I'm hungry for some Butter Chicken!
No comments:
Post a Comment