March 31rst: Today in 1492 Ferdinand and Isabella published the Alhambra Decree expelling all Jews from Spain. This led to the exodus of several hundred thousand people whose possessions were seized by the state.
Leta over at the The Flibbertigibbet has a post today attacking three great American institutions, Rex Morgan MD, The Phantom, and Mark Trail. Rex Morgan I will refer over to the Comics Curmudgeon who seems to cover it along with the other soap opera strips fairly well. The Phantom is seventy years old this year [...]
March 30th: Jeopardy debuts on NBC. What popular TV Game show debuted today in 1964? The show has had many runs, the current one began in 1984 with popular host Alex Trebek.
I really think we are starting to strangle on copyrights and patents in America. The nonsense of it all is becoming enormous, you cannot publish important historical works, inventors cannot bring products to the market without battalions of lawyers around them and a whole industry is arising just to sue people who actually make things. [...]
Incompetent airline storys always amuse me as a frequent flyer, some airlines have noticeably tighter controls than others, Ryanair is the laxist airline I have ever flown on. Thus it is no suprise to see they had a flight land at completely the wrong airport the other day. The airline spokesweasel assures us that
over [...]
March 29th: Today in 1857 Mangal Pandey, a soldier in the British Indian Army, attacked and wounded his British Sargeant and attempted to shoot an officer due to his belief that new bullet cartriges were coated in animal fat. This incident led to his execution several weeks later and increased the discontent in the Indian [...]
March 28th: Today in 1942 British Commandos and the Royal Navy raid the French shipyards at St. Nazaire which had been captured by the Germans. The raid was successful in damaging the ship yard, but the toll on the attackers was very high with 169 killed in the raid.
I have often heard Dr. Alice Medicine Woman complain about bad medical practice on T.V., but here is a cool blog that looks at medicine in the comic books. If you ever want to know the proper way to transport a wounded Green Lantern this is the place for you.
Brilliant Calls of Cthulhu over at McSweeneys. Being an Elder God has never been harder.
March 27th: Today in 1964 the most powerful recorded earthquake in North American history struck Alaska registering 9.2 on the Richter scale. Only nine people were killed in the earthquake, but over 100 were killed in the resulting tsunamis. A good personal account can be found here.