Today is indeed a momentous day in history. On this day, in 1927, the Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) was discovered by Teh West. It, of course, had previously been known to all those people for tens of thousands of years who lived among, and eated them.
This is also Carl Sagan's birthday. He was born in 1934, which seems like billions of years ago.
Do you remember Cosmos, first broadcast in 1980? (I always think of it as a few years earlier, but it was not.)
Do you remember The Great Blackout of 1965? I do (barely). It was today, but back then. It looked like this:
It is not true that there was a Blackout Baby Boom nine months later. But I think a lot of people did buy generators and/or candles.
On this day in 1888, Jack the Ripper killed Jane Kelly. He would not kill again after that. Here is a copy of a letter that may have been sent by Jack, along with a bit of internal organ from one of the victims, to the authorities:
From hell
Mr Lusk,
Sir
I send you half the Kidne I took from one women prasarved it for you tother piece I fried and ate it was very nise. I may send you the bloody knif that took it out if you only wate a whil longer
signed
Catch me when you can Mishter Lusk
"Lusk" was George A. Lusk chair of a "vigilance committee" established at the time to keep an eye on things.
This is also the anniversary of the formation of the American Birth Control League by Margaret Sanger in 1921.
America was in a depression in the 1930s. It took 15 years to fully pull out of that economic crisis. Funny thing, though, when Roosevelt was elected in part to get us out of that crisis, and two years went by, the American People did not belly ache about how he had not fixed all of our problems already. Let that be a lesson to you people! Anyway, on this day in 1933, Roosevelt established the Civil Works Administration.
And, finally, on this day in 1967 the first issue of "Rolling Stone" was published.
John Lennon on the cover of the first Rolling Stone.
Yes, a very interesting day in history. Tomorrow is interesting too.
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And let us not forget the Red Panda, which was the first of the two to be discovered by Western naturalists (by some fifty-odd years, IIRC).
I have had the dubious pleasure of surprising a Chinese guide during a visit to the Panda World in Fuzhou by a) knowing about the little red ones and b) being more interested in them than the big black and white ones.
Thanks for the anniversary listing, Dr. Laden. I knew about Jack T. Ripper and Dr. Sagan, but somehow the bit about Rolling Stone was off my radar.
The MadPanda, FCD
As far as your comments about FDR as compared to the most recent occupant of the White House and the difference in the way people acted in the elections then and now. I recommend that you check out a real history of the time (the 30s) unemployments was going down. There were a great number of programs to put people to work. The banks and Wall Street were being treated like the theives they were (and are). See a difference?
The electorate responded appropriately both times.
There were differences, and one might guess that a single paragraph could not possibly capture the details.
And one of those differences is rate at which people expected things to be done.
The CWA itslelf ran for five months and had little effect on the economy. It was the repeated use of this technique at much larger scales over the next six or seven years followed by a big-ass war that did the trick. Same president the whole time, though. Funny that.
Yes, there is a difference.
FYI, here's some rough data on Gross Domestic Product and Unemployment rates (the latter are in some cases interpolated. Source: googled the net.)
1929 GDP 790 UE 8.7
1930 GDP 720 UE 8.7
1931 GDP 674 UE 23.6
1932 GDP 584 UE 22
1933 GDP 577 UE 22
FDR takes office, CWA established GDP
1934 GDP 641 UE 22
1935 GDP 698 UE 18
1936 GDP 790 UE 17
1937 GDP 831 UE 17.5
1
I love the picture of the blackout!!!!
I recall the Blackout.
Can't wait to see tomorrows events! (Today)