Tuesday, December 26, 2023

PARACULTURAL CALENDAR FOR DECEMBER 26


On this day in 1799, 4000 people attend George Washington's funeral where Henry Lee III declares him as "first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen."

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On this day in 1846, trapped in snow in the Sierra Nevadas and without food, members of the Donner Party resort to cannibalism.

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On this day in 1862, the largest mass-hanging in U.S. history took place in Mankato, Minnesota, 38 Native Americans die.

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On this day in 1898, Marie and Pierre Curie announce the isolation of radium. They would soon both die of radiation poisoning.

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On this day in 1900, a relief crew arrives at the lighthouse on the Flannan Isles of Scotland, UK, only to find the previous crew has disappeared without a trace. Oo-We-oooo!

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On this day in 1982, Time's Man of the Year is for the first time a non-human: the Personal Computer.

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On this day in 1991, the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union meets and formally dissolves the Soviet Union.

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On this day in 1996, one of the most infuriating cases in the history of American jurisprudence gets rolling when 6-year-old beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey is found beaten and strangled to death in the basement of her family's home in Boulder, Colorado. To list all the reasons why it's obvious that the Ramseys either killed their daughter themselves, or else damn well know who did, would take more time and patience than I am currently willing to bestow upon the subject. Suffice it to say that the multi-millionaire couple were just too white and too rich to go to jail over something as trifling as a the brutal rape/murder of their own fucking daughter.

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On this day in 2003, a magnitude 6.6 earthquake devastates southeast Iranian city of Bam, killing tens of thousands and destroying the citadel of Arg-é Bam. One year later, on this day in 2004, a 9.3 magnitude earthquake creates a tsunami causing devastation in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Maldives and many other areas around the rim of the Indian Ocean, killing close to a quarter of a million human beings, for fuck's sake. Un-fucking-believable.

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