Tuesday, March 3, 2009

It's National Square Root Day

Today's date is 3/3/09, so 3 is the square root of 9 and ... oh, never mind.

Enjoy it today because it doesn't come around again until 4/4/16.

The first issue of Time was published on March 3, 1923, featuring on its cover Joseph G. Cannon, the retired Speaker of the United States House of Representatives



It has been suggested that TIME is an acronym, for The International Magazine of Events.


Here is your Today in History -
Russian Serfdom was abolished on this date in 1861.

The Russian serf lived a hopeless life of back-breaking labor and desperate poverty. Their oppression, which continued even after their liberation, caused riots, assassinations, and literature. Finally they had the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 to make the serfs equal to everyone else, and it worked.

From that point forward, everyone lived a hopeless life of back-breaking labor and desperate poverty.



The American surfdom can only be blamed for the Beach Boys and Annette Funicello.


March 3, 1863 -
The National Conscription Act is signed, forcing all men between 20 and 45 years of age into the draft lotteries. Except for rich bastards, who could buy their way out for $300, or hire another man to serve in his place.



The inevitable result is the week long New York Draft Riots.


March 3, 1931 -
An English beer drinking song becomes the National Anthem of the United States. The lyrics to said drink song are -

To Anacreon in heaven where he sat in full glee,
A few sons of harmony sent a petition,
That he their inspirer and patron would be,
When this answer arrived from the jolly old Grecian:
Voice, fiddle aud flute, no longer be mute,
I'll lend you my name and inspire you to boot!
And besides I'll instruct you like me to entwine
The myrtle of Venus and Bacchus's vine.

I believe drinking heavily is the key here.



I'm not sure if the spitting was in the original version of the anthem.


March 3, 1934 -
John Dillinger escapes from an escapeproof jail in Crown Point Indiana, using a wooden pistol he carved himself. It's his second escape.



Remember, J. Edger is just months away from slicing up the corpse of Dillinger for his own personal collection.


March 3, 1959 -
An embittered and confused Lou Costello rouses himself from his hospital bed to mutter, "Fuck you Abbott, Who's on first now", coughs up bloody phlegm and dies.



Bud Abbott, ten years older than Lou, smiles to himself, lights a cigars and live another 15 years to spite his former partner.



March 3, 1967 -
The Berkeley Barb reported on this date that banana peels can make you high.



Apparently lots of people can be fooled into thinking that the resulting "bananadine" extract is a hallucinogenic Mellow Yellow.



March 3, 1991 -
Los Angles Police officers are filmed beating black motorist Rodney King with nightsticks. Television news stations repeatedly air the film nationwide.



Four whites are charged with the beating on March 15, and when they are found not guilty, Los Angeles erupts in riot.


And so it goes.

No comments: