Oct.13-19 - More Returns and Changes

2009: Day 181

Though the victory would be fleeting -- they would fall to the Spanish empire the following year -- the people of Tenochtitlan managed to expel the thieving, brutally proselytizing conquistadors from their island city on Lake Texcoco on this date in 1520.

One hundred fifty years ago (1859) Charles Blondin, a French acrobat, crosses Niagara Falls on a tightrope.

Charles J. Guiteau, assassin of President James Garfield, was hanged in Washington, D.C. this day in 1882.

Curiously, professional wrestlers Man Mountain Dean and Ed "Strangler" Lewis were both born on this date in 1891.

In 1905, Albert Einstein publishes On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies, reconciling Maxwell's equations with the existing laws of mechanics via two postulates, quietly introducing the world to what would come to be known as special relativity.

One hundred one years ago (1908) a blast estimated to most likely have been between 10 and 15 megatons occurred in the air over the Tunguska River in Russia, flattening over 2,150 square kilometers of forest. That it occurred in a remote, almost completely uninhabited region, yet over land so that the aftermath could be seen, was fortunate.

Actress Susan Hayward came on the scene in 1917.

The inventor of the modern hot air balloon, Paul Edward Yost, was born today in 1919, giving various lunatic, would-be adventuring millionaires and billionaires something to do.

Though technically lasting through July 2, in 1934 this was the start of the Night of the Long Knives, (which still sounds like an episode of The Wild Wild West), during which the Nazi regime (under Adolph Hitler) carried out political executions of rivals. Of particular interest is that most of the people he had executed were Sturmabteilung, paramilitary brownshirts whose violent ways had come to be resented and feared by the general public, giving Hitler and his regime the air of crime-buster and social reformer. The previously terrorized public - and even the courts, which quickly moved to change laws to support the extra-judicial executions - openly embraced Hitler's regime.

If one doesn't believe there's a lesson to be learned there about accepting it when anyone in power declares that notions of due process and applying a careful, reasoned hand have been rendered "quaint" or outmoded by new enemies - and where the adoption of such expediencies are likely to lead - then something's terribly wrong.

Meanwhile, in Three Rivers Michigan, future magician Harry Blackstone Jr. appears!

Actor Tony Musante (1937) turns 73 today.

Fifty six years ago (1953) the first Chevrolet Corvette rolled off the GM assembly line in Flint Michigan.

Actor and comedian David Alan Grier turns 54 today.

Most assuredly tired of having people ask him what his major malfunction is, actor Vincent D'Onofrio turns 50 today.

Mike Tyson turns 43 today.

In 1971, the crew of the Soviet Soyuz 11 mission died when a sudden air leak occurred while they readied for re-entry.

Fans of the now-canceled Reaper (raises hand) may want to note that Rick Gonzalez - supporting character Benji - turns 30 today.

In 1987, the Royal Canadian Mint went Loonie.

In 1997 (at the stroke of midnight, between June 30th and July 1st) the United Kingdom turns Hong Kong over to The People's Republic of China, following through on a joint declaration signed back in 1984.