Friday, June 21, 2024

PARACULTURAL CALENDAR FOR JUNE 21


On this day in 1948, Columbia Records introduces the long-playing record album (LP) in a public demonstration at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, New York, thus ushering in the era of the deleriously pompous excesses of Progressive Rock and "concept albums".

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On this day in the year 1964, three civil rights workers - Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney - disappear while driving back to New York in the middle of the night. 44 days later, their dead bodies are discovered in an earthen dam where their Klan-affiliated murderers, including some members of the local constabulary, had buried them. What did these three men do to deserve such a fate? They were getting black folks to register for the vote in Mississippi.

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On this day in 1969, homosexual icon Judy Garland dies in London at the age of 47, in a freak avalanche. Seems she was singing in the shower when she hit a high note that triggered a chain reaction, sending all the pills in her medicine cabinet plunging into the bathroom, crushing her.

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On this day in 1982, would-be Reagan assassin John Hinckley Jr is found not guilty by reason of insanity. The fact that he’s the son of one of the people who financed George Herbert Walker “Poppy” Bush’s bid for the Republican nomination just a few years earlier - a bid he lost to Reagan - probably helped him out a bit, don't you think? Seriously folks, read the information contained at the given link. You'll be amazed, if you aren't already aware of these facts.

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On this day in 2004, Paul Allen and Burt Rutan’s SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight. Spacewow, that’s, like, totally spaceawesome!

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