Venereal Disease on This Day in History

 

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This Day in History: The first venereal disease clinic opened at London Lock Hospital on this day in 1747. The London Lock Hospital was the first voluntary hospital for venereal disease. It was also the most famous and first of the Lock Hospitals which were developed for the treatment of syphilis. 

Many famous historical figures, including Franz Schubert, Arthur Schopenhauer, Édouard Manet, Charles Baudelaire, and Guy de Maupassant are believed to have had the disease. Friedrich Nietzsche was long believed to have gone mad as a result of tertiary syphilis.

Sexually transmitted diseases have been known to exist throughout ancient history.

Some believe that King David in the Bible had an STD based on his words at Psalm 38:

"My wounds are loathsome and corrupt, Because of my foolishness. I am pained and bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long. For my loins are filled with burning; And there is no soundness in my flesh. I am faint and sore bruised: I have groaned by reason of the disquietness of my heart." ASV

Some also believe that Leviticus 15 also refers to a venereal disease:

"And Jehovah spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When any man hath an issue out of his flesh, because of his issue he is unclean. And this shall be his uncleanness in his issue: whether his flesh run with his issue, or his flesh be stopped from his issue, it is his uncleanness." ASV

John Gill in his Exposition of the Bible wrote here: "what physicians call a 'gonorrhoea', and we, as in the margin of our Bibles, 'the running of the reins'".

Also, "In the Book of Numbers it is written that 12000 Israelites after the war with the Midianites returned with a 'gleet' and 24000 enslaved women. Moses, seeing their illness, ordered the slaughter of the women and a quarantine of 7 days for his soldiers; from the Bible we also know the patriarch Job had a strange skin disease, later believed to be syphilis, and that Solomon in the 'proverbs' advises men to avoid loose women, even though he had many wives and concubines." [History of Venereal Diseases from Antiquity to the Renaissance by Franjo Gruber1, Jasna Lipozencic, Tatjana Kehler]

That syphilis prevailed among the ancient Israelites is sufficiently apparent from the accounts of the lepra in Leviticus, a complaint which, from the graphic delineation given by Moses of its contagious nature, so closely corresponds in its main features with syphilis that they must be regarded as being one and the same malady. No impartial and enlightened physician can read the accounts of the sufferings of Job and of David, those two great and wonderful men, without being convinced that they were brought on by what are usually called 'early indiscretions.' The symptoms they so graphically describe clearly point to what is now known as the tertiary form of the disease. Job, in chapter vii. of the Book bearing his name, says: 'My flesh is covered with putrid sores,' and, in chapter xxx., he adds: 'My bones are pierced with pains in the night season, and my sinews take no rest.' The royal Psalmist says: 'There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; there is no rest for my bones on account of my transgressions. My sores stink and are corrupt, because of my folly. For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease, so that there is no soundness in my flesh.' Psalm xxxviii. Gonorrhoea prevailed in the time of Moses, and men affected with it were pronounced as unclean, and, consequently, as unfit to cohabit with their wives. Is it probable that the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, both of which were destroyed on account of their wickedness, their crimes against nature, and other grave offences, were free from syphilis? Sexual commerce between the two sexes must bave been of constant occurrence, and been followed, as it is in our own day, by the saddest results. The earlier races of mankind were endowed with the same feelings and passions as the people of modern times, and that promiscuous sexual intercourse was common among them is proved by the fact that concubinage was one of the peculiar prerogatives of the higher and more wealthy classes." ~SD Gross, Address in Surgery, American Medical Association 1874

The First Assassination Attempt Against a US President on This Day in History

This Day in History: In the first assassination attempt against a President of the United States happened on this day in 1835. Richard Lawrence attempted to shoot president Andrew Jackson on this day, but failed and was subdued by a crowd, including several congressmen as well as Jackson himself.

Richard Lawrence was an English-American house painter, and historians have speculated that exposure to the toxic chemicals in the paints that he used may have contributed to his mental illness, which manifested itself in his thirties, and he later became violent to his siblings. At trial, Lawrence was found not guilty by reason of insanity and spent the remainder of his life in insane asylums.

Lawrence was not the only painter known for his violence. "The Baroque artist Caravaggio is famous for gruesome paintings like 'Judith Beheading Holofernes.' Yet it wasn’t only his paintings that were brutal and violent. In the early 17th century, Caravaggio went to trial at least 11 times for things like writing libelous poems, throwing a plate of artichokes at a waiter and assaulting people with swords. He eventually fled Rome to escape punishment for killing a man and died in exile under mysterious circumstances." Source

16th century painter Benvenuto Cellini "killed repeatedly without remorse and without being punished. He stabbed his brother's murderer to death with a long twisted dagger that he drove downward through the man's shoulder. He also killed a rival goldsmith and shot an innkeeper dead – and recounts all these crimes in his autobiography. He escaped being executed because he was so admired as an artist. In those days, geniuses really could get away with murder." Source

Victorian era painter Richard Dadd stabbed his father to death because he thought he was the devil. He spent the rest of his life in prisons and mental institutions where he painted fantastic fairy scenes of bizarre detail and intensity.

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Edgar Allan Poe's THE RAVEN on This Day in History

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This Day in History: Edgar Allan's Poe's poem "The Raven" was published on this day in 1845, and it quickly became one the most famous poems of all time.

"The Raven" is a narrative poem by American gothic writer Edgar Allan Poe. The poem is often noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's slow descent into madness. The lover, often identified as a student, is lamenting the loss of his love, Lenore. Sitting on a bust of Pallas, the raven seems to further distress the protagonist with its constant repetition of the word "Nevermore". The poem makes use of folk, mythological, religious, and classical references.

Poe claimed to have written the poem logically and methodically, with the intention to create a poem that would appeal to both critical and popular tastes, as he explained in his 1846 follow-up essay, "The Philosophy of Composition". The poem was inspired in part by a talking raven in the novel Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of Eighty by Charles Dickens. Poe borrows the complex rhythm and meter of Elizabeth Barrett's poem "Lady Geraldine's Courtship", and makes use of internal rhyme as well as alliteration throughout.

"The Raven" was first attributed to Poe in print in the New York Evening Mirror on January 29, 1845. Its publication made Poe popular in his lifetime, although it did not bring him much financial success. The poem was soon reprinted, parodied, and illustrated. Critical opinion is divided as to the poem's literary status, but it nevertheless remains one of the most famous poems ever written.

The poem has inspired numerous parodies in the 19th century, and since then we have seen tributes to the poem in the Bugs Bunny cartoon, Tim Burton's Vincent, The Dead Zone, Short Circuit, 1989's Batman, The Crow, The Pagemaster, Dr Dolittle 2, The Simpsons, Night Gallery, The Addams Family, Gilmore Girls, Beetlejuice (cartoon), Duck Tales, Muppet Babies, Star Trek, Mama's Family, Teen Wolf, The 100...even The Expendables. It even made it to song. Queen recorded "Nevermore" on their second album Queen II, The Alan Parsons Project devoted an entire album to Poe, The Grateful Dead performed their own version of the Raven, and Lou Reed and Blues Travelers each paid respect to the poem as well. There is an annual science fiction convention called RavenCon and also a Raven Society. The Baltimore Raven's football team is named after the poem, as Poe lived and died in Baltimore.

The Raven, by E.A. Poe

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—

    While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—

            Only this and nothing more.”

    Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;

And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.

    Eagerly I wished the morrow;—vainly I had sought to borrow

    From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore—

For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore—

            Nameless here for evermore.

    And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain

Thrilled me—filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;

    So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating

    “’Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door—

Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;—

            This it is and nothing more.”

    Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,

“Sir,” said I, “or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;

    But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,

    And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,

That I scarce was sure I heard you”—here I opened wide the door;—

            Darkness there and nothing more.

    Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,

Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;

    But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,

    And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, “Lenore?”

This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, “Lenore!”—

            Merely this and nothing more.

    Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,

Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.

    “Surely,” said I, “surely that is something at my window lattice;

      Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore—

Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore;—

            ’Tis the wind and nothing more!”

    Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,

In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore;

    Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;

    But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door—

Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door—

            Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,

By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,

“Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,” I said, “art sure no craven,

Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore—

Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!”

            Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”

 Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,

Though its answer little meaning—little relevancy bore;

    For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being

    Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door—

Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,

            With such name as “Nevermore.”

    But the Raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only

That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.

    Nothing farther then he uttered—not a feather then he fluttered—

    Till I scarcely more than muttered “Other friends have flown before—

On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before.”

            Then the bird said “Nevermore.”

    Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,

“Doubtless,” said I, “what it utters is its only stock and store

    Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster

    Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore—

Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore

            Of ‘Never—nevermore’.”

But the Raven still beguiling all my fancy into smiling,

Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird, and bust and door;

    Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking

    Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore—

What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore

            Meant in croaking “Nevermore.”

    This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing

To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom’s core;

    This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining

    On the cushion’s velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o’er,

But whose velvet-violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o’er,

            She shall press, ah, nevermore!

    Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer

Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.

    “Wretch,” I cried, “thy God hath lent thee—by these angels he hath sent thee

    Respite—respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore;

Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!”

            Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”

    “Prophet!” said I, “thing of evil!—prophet still, if bird or devil!—

Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,

    Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted—

    On this home by Horror haunted—tell me truly, I implore—

Is there—is there balm in Gilead?—tell me—tell me, I implore!”

            Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”

“Prophet!” said I, “thing of evil!—prophet still, if bird or devil!

By that Heaven that bends above us—by that God we both adore—

    Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,

    It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore—

Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore.”

            Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”

    “Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!” I shrieked, upstarting—

“Get thee back into the tempest and the Night’s Plutonian shore!

    Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!

    Leave my loneliness unbroken!—quit the bust above my door!

Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!”

            Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”

    And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting

On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;

    And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming,

    And the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;

And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor

            Shall be lifted—nevermore!

Glenn Beck reads The Raven

The Diet of Worms on This Day in History

 

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This day in history: The Diet of Worms began on this day in 1521. The Diet [pronounced Dee-it] of Worms of 1521 was an imperial diet (a formal deliberative assembly) of the Holy Roman Empire called by Emperor Charles V and conducted in the Imperial Free City of Worms. Martin Luther was summoned to the Diet in order to renounce or reaffirm his views in response to a Papal bull of Pope Leo X. In answer to questioning, he defended these views and refused to recant them. 

In June of the previous year, 1520, Pope Leo X issued the Papal bull Exsurge Domine ("Arise, O Lord"), outlining forty-one purported errors found in Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses and other writings related to or written by him. Luther was summoned by the emperor. Prince Frederick III, Elector of Saxony obtained an agreement that if Luther appeared he would be promised safe passage to and from the meeting. This guarantee was essential after the treatment of Jan Hus, who was tried and executed at the Council of Constance in 1415 despite a promise of safe conduct.

"A great Diet of the empire was convened at Worms, and thither Luther was summoned by the temporal power. He had a safe-conduct, which even so powerful a prince as Charles V. durst not violate. In April, 1521, the reformer appeared before the collected dignitaries of the German empire, both spiritual and temporal, and was called upon to recant his opinions as heretical in the eyes of the church, and dangerous to the peace of the empire. Before the most august assembly in the world, without a trace of embarrassment, he made his defence, and refused to recant. 'Unless,' said he, 'my errors can be demonstrated by texts from Scripture, I will not and cannot recant; for it is not safe for a man to go against his conscience. Here I am. I can do no otherwise. God help me! Amen.'

This declaration satisfied his friends, though it did not satisfy the members of the diet. Luther was permitted to retire. He had gained the confidence of the nation. From that time, he was its idol, and the acknowledged leader of the greatest insurrection of human intelligence which modern times have seen. The great principles of the reformation were declared. The great hero of the Beformution had planted his cause upon a rock. And yet his labors had but just commenced. Henceforth, his life was toil and vexation. New difficulties continually arose.

New questions had to be continually settled. Luther, by his letters, was every where. He commenced the translation of the Scriptures; he wrote endless controversial tracts; his correspondence was unparalleled; his efforts as a preacher were prodigious. But he was equal to it all; was wonderfully adapted to his age and circumstances."~John Lord

"Having received a twenty-one-day safe-conduct Luther set out for Wittenberg on April 26. The diet closed officially on May 25, and the next day, following a rump session of prejudiced nobles, the emperor signed the Edict of Worms. According to it, Luther was the devil himself in a monk’s habit. He was to be seized on sight and turned over to the emperor—an outlaw of the church and the state."~Carl Koppenhaver

At the end of the Diet, the Emperor issued the Edict of Worms, a decree which condemned Luther as "a notorious heretic" and banned citizens of the Empire from propagating his ideas.

The Edict decreed:

"For this reason we forbid anyone from this time forward to dare, either by words or by deeds, to receive, defend, sustain, or favor the said Martin Luther. On the contrary, we want him to be apprehended and punished as a notorious heretic, as he deserves, to be brought personally before us, or to be securely guarded until those who have captured him inform us, whereupon we will order the appropriate manner of proceeding against the said Luther. Those who will help in his capture will be rewarded generously for their good work."

The 1522 and 1524 Diets of Nuremberg attempted to execute the judgement of the Edict of Worms against Luther, but they failed.

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Curator of the Supernatural, Dorothy Scarborough, on This Day in History

Humorous Ghost Stories by Dorothy Scarborough

This Day in History: Dorothy Scarborough was born on this day in 1878. She is best known for her 1917 dissertation "The Supernatural in Modern English Fiction" which "was so widely acclaimed by her professors and colleagues that it was published and it has become a basic reference work." ~Sylvia Ann Grider

This work is certainly valuable in finding old ghost stories that many may have forgotten about. This, alongside HP Lovecraft's "Supernatural Horror in Literature" are some of the best early works dealing with this topic.

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Read The Supernatural in Modern English Fiction

As stated in the Introduction: THE supernatural is an ever-present force in literature. It colors our poetry, shapes our epics and dramas, and fashions our prose till we are so wonted to it that we lose sense of its wonder and magic. If all the elements of the unearthly were removed from our books, how shrunken in value would seem the residue, how forlorn our feelings! Lafcadio Hearn in the recently published volume, Interpretations of Literature, says:

'There is scarcely any great author in European literature, old or new, who has not distinguished himself in his treatment of the supernatural. In English literature I believe there is no exception from the time of the Anglo-Saxon poets to Shakespeare, and from Shakespeare to our own day. And this introduces us to the consideration of a general and remarkable fact, a fact that I do not remember to have seen in any books, but which is of very great philosophical importance: there is something ghostly in all great art, whether of literature, music, sculpture, or architecture. It touches something within us that relates to infinity.'

This continuing presence of the weird in literature shows the popular demand for it and must have some basis in human psychosis. The night side of the soul attracts us all. The spirit feeds on mystery. It lives not by fact alone but by the unknowable, and there is no highest mystery without the supernatural. Man loves the frozen touch of fear, and realizes pure terror only when touched by the unmortal. The hint of spectral sounds or presences quickens the imagination as no other suggestion can do, and no human shapes of fear can awe the soul as those from beyond the grave. Man’s varying moods create heaven, hell, and faery wonder-lands for him, and people them with strange beings.

Man loves the supernatural elements in literature perhaps because they dignify him by giving his existence a feeling of infinity otherwise denied. They grant him a sense of being the center of powers more than earthly, of conflicts supermortal. His own material life may be however circumscribed and trivial yet he can loose his fancy and escape the petty tragedies of his days by flight beyond the stars. He can widen the tents of his mortal life, create a universe for his companionship, and marshal the forces of demons and unknown gods for his commands. To his narrow rut he can join the unspaced firmament; to his trivial hours add eternity; to his finite, infinity. He is so greedy of power, and has so piteously little that he must look for his larger life in dreams and in the literature of the supernatural.

But, whatever be the reasons, there has been a continuity of the ghostly in literature, with certain rise and fall of interest. There is in modern English fiction, as likewise in poetry and the drama, a great extent of the supernatural, with wide diversity of elements. Beginning with the Gothic romance, that curious architectural excrescence that yet has had enormous influence on our novel, the supernatural is found in every period and in every form of fiction. The unearthly beings meet us in all guises, and answer our every mood, whether it be serious or awed, satiric or humoresque.

Literature, always a little ahead of life, has formed our beliefs for us, made us free with spirits, and given us entrance to immortal countries. The sense of the unearthly is ever with us, even in the most commonplace situations,—and there is nothing so natural to us as the supernatural. Our imagination, colored by our reading, reveals and transforms the world we live in. We are aware of unbodied emotions about us, of discarnate moods that mock or invite us. We go a-ghosting now in public places, and a specter may glide up to give us an apologia pro vita sua any day in Grand Central or on Main Street of Our-Town. We chat with fetches across the garden fence and pass the time of day with demons by way of the dumb-waiter. That gray-furred creature that glooms suddenly before us in the winter street is not a chauffeur, but a were-wolf questing for his prey. Yon whirring thing in the far blue is not an aeroplane but a hippogriff that will presently alight on the pavement beside us with thundering golden hoofs to bear us away to distant lovely lands where we shall be untroubled by the price of butter or the articles lost in last week’s wash. That sedate middle-aged ferry that transports us from Staten Island is a magic Sending Boat if only we knew its potent runes! The old woman with the too-pink cheeks and glittering eye, that presses August bargains upon us with the argument that they will be in style for early fall wear, is a witch wishful to lure away our souls. We may pass at will by the guardian of the narrow gate and traverse the regions of the Under-world. True, the materialist may argue that the actual is more marvelous than the imagined, that the aeroplane is more a thing of wonder than was the hippogriff, that the ferry is really the enchanted boat, after all, and that Dante would write a new Inferno if he could see the subway at the rush hour, but that is another issue.

We might have more psychal experiences than we do if we would only keep our eyes open, but most of us do have more than we admit to the neighbors. We have an early-Victorian reticence concerning ghostly things as if it were scandalous to be associated with them. But that is all wrong. We should be proud of being singled out for spectral confidences and should report our ghost-guests to the society columns of the newspaper. It is hoped that this discussion of comparative ghost-lore may help to establish a better sense of values.

In this book I deal with ghosts and devils by and large, in an impressionistic way. I don’t know much about them; I have no learned theories of causation. I only love them. I only marvel at their infinite variety and am touched by their humanity, their likeness to mortals. I am fond of them all, even the dejected, dog-eared ghosts that look as if they were wraiths of poor relations left out in the rain all night, or devils whose own mothers wouldn’t care for them. It gives me no holier-than-thou feeling of horror to sit beside a vampire in the subway, no panic to hear a banshee shut up in a hurdy-gurdy box. I give a cordial how-do-you-do when a dragon glides up and puts his paw in mine, and in every stray dog I recognize a Gladsome Beast. Like us mortals, they all need sympathy, none more so than the poor wizards and bogles that are on their own, as the Scotch say.

While discussing the nineteenth century as a whole, I have devoted more attention to the fiction of the supernatural in the last thirty years or so, because there has been much more of it in that time than before. There is now more interest in the occult, more literature produced dealing with psychal powers than ever before in our history. It is apparent in poetry, in the drama, the novel, and the short story. I have not attempted, even in my bibliography, to include all the fiction of the type, since that would be manifestly impossible. I have, however, mentioned specimens of the various forms, and have listed the more important examples. The treatment here is meant to be suggestive rather than exhaustive and seeks to show that there is a genuine revival of wonder in our time, with certain changes in the characterization of supernatural beings. It includes not only the themes that are strictly supernatural, but also those which, formerly considered unearthly, carry on the traditions of the magical. Much of our material of the weird has been rationalized, yet without losing its effect of wonder for us in fact or in fiction. If now we study a science where once men believed blindly in a Black Art, is the result really less mysterious?

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Wayne Gretzky (The Outlier) on This Day in History

 

How your birthday could make or break your hockey career.

This Day in History: The Great One, Wayne Gretzky, was born on this day in 1961 in Brantford Ontario. He has been called the greatest hockey player ever by many sportswriters, players, the NHL itself, and by The Hockey News, based on extensive surveys of hockey writers, ex-players, general managers and coaches. Gretzky is the leading goal scorer, leading assist producer and leading point scorer in NHL history, and garnered more assists in his career than any other player scored total points. He is the only NHL player to total over 200 points in one season, a feat he accomplished four times. In addition, Gretzky tallied over 100 points in record 16 professional seasons, 14 of them consecutive, also a record. At the time of his retirement in 1999, he held 61 NHL records: 40 regular season records, 15 playoff records, and 6 All-Star records.

One has to wonder if the month he was born contributed to Wayne Gretsky's success. "In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell discusses the odd distribution of birth months among NHL players. Because youth players are registered in leagues based on their year of birth, the biggest and strongest players tend to be those born in the first few months of the year. This selection process starts as early as age 8, and the effect persists more than a decade later in junior hockey in Canada." Source

"In Canada, the eligibility cutoff for age-class hockey programs is Jan. 1. Canada also takes hockey really seriously, so coaches start streaming the best hockey players into elite programs, where they practice more and play more games and get better coaching, as early as 8 or 9. But who tends to be the "best" player at age 8 or 8? The oldest, of course -- the kids born nearest the cut-off date, who can be as much as almost a year older than kids born at the other end of the cut-off date. When you are 8 years old, 10 or 11 extra months of maturity means a lot. So those kids get special attention. That's why there are more players in the NHL born in January and February and March than any other months." Source

"There were 158 total players at that time in the NHL born between 1980 and 1990 in January, February or March and just 97 born in October, November or December. Those players, per the Gladwell theory, get short-shrift in Canadian youth hockey because they’re too young … and then get docked by some when it’s draft time because they’re older than other eligible peers." Source

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Killed by a Robot on This Day in History

 

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This day in history: Robert Williams, a worker at a Ford Motor Company plant, became the first person known to be killed by a robot when a factory robot's arm struck him in the head.

"Williams died instantly in 1979 when the robot's arm slammed him as he was gathering parts in a storage facility, where the robot also retrieved parts. Williams' family was later awarded $10 million in damages. The jury agreed the robot struck him in the head because of a lack of safety measures, including one that would sound an alarm if the robot was near." Source

In 1981, Kenji Urada became Japan’s first person killed by a robot. "Urada was doing some maintenance and repair work on a robot. There was a wire mesh fence surrounding the robot which when unhooked, could have shut down the power. But Kenji went over the safety fence without unhooking it and accidentally turned the robot on. Kenji was trapped by the robot’s hydraulic arm which pinned him against another machine for cutting gears. He was crushed by the robot while other facility workers could not help because they did not know how to operate the machine to stop it." Source

Wanda Holbrook, who was employed as a journeyman maintenance technician at Ventra Ionia LLC in Ionia, Michigan was crushed and killed by a robot while maintaining equipment in 2015.

On March 18, 2018, Elaine Herzberg became the first person killed by a self-driving car. The self-driving Uber car that hit and killed Herzberg did not recognize that people sometimes jaywalk. Herzberg's family settled with Uber out of court. Uber announced that it had relaunched its self-driving cars nine months after the incident.

"Journalist and conspiracy theorist Linda Moulton Howe addressed a crowd at the Conscious Life Expo in Los Angeles in December 2018. Part of her speech has since gone viral on the Internet. Howe says in her talk that, in August 2017, four AI robots killed 29 scientists at a lab in Japan. While many are using this claim to argue about the dangers of artificial intelligence, others don’t think this story is true. Well, Howe’s points may be valid, but the incident in Japan she refers to is not verifiable." Source

Buy: The Mysterious Book of Genesis - Lilith, Enoch & Other Strange Studies: An Anthology on Amazon for only 99 cents

Comedy King of Music City, Ray Stevens, on This Day in History

Ray Stevens (Henhouse Five Plus Two) - In The Mood (The Chicken Song)

This day in history: Harold Ray Ragsdale was born on this day (January 24) in 1939. Known professionally as Ray Stevens, he is an American country and pop singer-songwriter and comedian, known for his Grammy-winning recordings "Everything Is Beautiful" and "Misty", as well as comedic hits such as "Gitarzan" and "The Streak". He has received gold albums for his music sales. He has worked as a producer, music arranger, and television host. He is an inductee of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, and the Christian Music Hall of Fame, and the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

Ray Stevens' most memorable song was The Streak. "The Streak" is a country/novelty song written, produced, and sung by Ray Stevens. It was released in February 1974 as the lead single to his album Boogity Boogity. "The Streak" capitalized on the then-popular craze of streaking.

Stevens has stated that he first got the idea for the song while reading a news magazine on an airplane. The magazine included a brief item about streaking, and Stevens thought that it was a "great idea for a song" and started writing notes; later, he wrote some lines after returning home from his trip, but did not complete the song at that time. Some time later, Stevens says he "woke up and it was all over the news. Everywhere you turned, people were talking about streakers". Stevens then rushed to complete and record the song and have it released. According to Stevens, there were already 15 other songs released about streaking by the time his was released, and there ended up being 35 to 40 such records in all.

Other comic hits by Ray Stevens are:

It's Me Again Margaret

The Mississippi Squirrel Revival

Ahab and Arab

The Shriner's Convention

Ray Stevens was Weird Al BEFORE Weird Al. His awards are as follows: 

1969: Gold Single – "Gitarzan"

1970: Gold Single – "Everything Is Beautiful"

1970: Grammy – "Everything Is Beautiful" (Best Male Pop Vocal Performance)

1974: Gold Single – "The Streak"

1975: Grammy – "Misty" (Best Arrangement of the Year)

1980: Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame induction

1980: Georgia Music Hall of Fame induction

1984: Gold Album – He Thinks He's Ray Stevens

1985: Gold Album – I Have Returned

1986–94: Music City News Comedian of the Year

1986: No. 1 Country Album Plaque from Billboard – I Have Returned (week ending March 15, 1986)

1987: Platinum Album – Greatest Hits

1987: Gold Album – Greatest Hits, Volume Two

1990: Gold Album – All-Time Greatest Comic Hits

1992: No. 1 Home Video Plaque from Billboard – Comedy Video Classics

1992: Ten Times-Platinum Home Video – Comedy Video Classics

1993: Billboard Home Video of the Year

1993: Platinum Home Video – Ray Stevens Live!

1995: Platinum Home Video – Get Serious!

1995: Country Weekly Golden Pick Award for Best Comedian

2001: Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame induction

2002: Gold Single – "Osama Yo' Mama"

2009: Christian Music Hall of Fame induction

 

The First Catholic University in the US on This Day in History

 
Buy: The New Anti-Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Prejudice for only $4.09

This Day in History: Georgetown College, the first Catholic university in the United States, was founded in Georgetown, Maryland on this day in 1789. 

Historically however, America has has a strong anti-Catholic sentiment. The historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. characterized prejudice against Catholics as "the deepest bias in the history of the American people." The historian John Higham described anti-Catholicism as "the most luxuriant, tenacious tradition of paranoiac agitation in American history".

Anti-Catholic attitudes were brought to the Thirteen Colonies by Protestant immigrants. Two types of anti-Catholic rhetoric existed in colonial society and they continued to exist into the following centuries. The first type, derived from the theological heritage of the Protestant Reformation and the European wars of religion (16th-18th century), consisted of the biblical Anti-Christ and the Whore of Babylon variety and it dominated anti-Catholic thought until the late seventeenth century. The second type was a secular variety which was partially derived from xenophobic and ethnocentric nativist sentiments and distrust of increasing waves of Catholic immigrants, particularly from Ireland, Italy, Poland, Québec, and Mexico. It usually focused on the pope's control of bishops and priests.

This Anti-Catholic sentiment was popular enough that The Menace, a weekly newspaper with a virulently anti-Catholic stance, was founded in 1911 and quickly reached a nationwide circulation of 1.5 million. 

Anti-Catholicism was widespread in the 1920s; anti-Catholics, including the Ku Klux Klan, believed that Catholicism was incompatible with democracy and that parochial schools encouraged separatism and kept Catholics from becoming loyal Americans. The Catholics responded to such prejudices by repeatedly asserting their rights as American citizens and by arguing that they, not the nativists (anti-Catholics), were true patriots since they believed in the right to freedom of religion.

With the rapid growth of the second Ku Klux Klan (KKK) 1921–25, anti-Catholic rhetoric intensified. The Catholic Church of the Little Flower was first built in 1925 in Royal Oak, Michigan, a largely Protestant town. Two weeks after it opened, the Ku Klux Klan burned a cross in front of the church.

Despite all of this, the Catholic Church is the largest Christian denomination in the United States. The top ten list being:

1. The Catholic Church

2. The Southern Baptist Convention

3. The United Methodist Church

4. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

5. The Church of God in Christ

6. National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.

7. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

8. National Baptist Convention of America

9. Presbyterian Church (USA)

10. Assemblies of God. Source

See also: A Candid History of the Jesuits - 50 Books on CDrom (or download)

See also Catholics and the Bible - 100 Books on DVDROM

The New York City "Mad Bomber" on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: The New York City "Mad Bomber", George P. Metesky, was arrested in Waterbury, Connecticut and charged with planting more than 30 bombs on this day in 1957.

George Peter Metesky (November 2, 1903 – May 23, 1994), better known as the Mad Bomber, was an American electrician and mechanic who terrorized New York City for 16 years in the 1940s and 1950s with explosives that he planted in theaters, terminals, libraries and offices. Bombs were left in phone booths, storage lockers and restrooms in public buildings, including Grand Central Terminal, Pennsylvania Station, Radio City Music Hall, the New York Public Library, the Port Authority Bus Terminal and the RCA Building, and in the New York City Subway. Metesky also bombed movie theaters, where he cut into seat upholstery and slipped his explosive devices inside.

Angry and resentful about events surrounding a workplace injury suffered years earlier, Metesky planted at least 33 bombs, of which 22 exploded, injuring 15 people. The hunt for the bomber enlisted an early use of offender profiling. He was apprehended based on clues given in letters he wrote to a newspaper. He was found legally insane and committed to a state mental hospital.

According to History & Headlines the top 10 most famous/infamous bombers are:

10. Richard Colvin Reid “The Shoe Bomber”

9. Edward Teller “The Father of the Hydrogen Bomb”

8. J. Robert Oppenheimer “The Father of The Atomic Bomb” 

7. William Boeing (whose planes dropped more bombs than anyone else’s, ever, anywhere)

6. Alfred Nobel (the man that invented dynamite)

5. Tsarnaev Brothers (Boston Marathon bombers)

4. George P. Metesky (see above)

3. Timothy Mcveigh (Oklahoma City Federal Building bombing)

2. Guy Fawkes (Gun Powder plot)

1. Ted Kaczynski (Unabomber)

Bomb: The Race to Build -- and Steal -- the World's Most Dangerous Weapon 

The FAILED DeLorean Sports Car on This Day in History

This Day In History: The production of the iconic DeLorean sports car began in Northern Ireland on this day in 1981, and anyone who's watched Back to the Future knows what a Delorean is. 

If you've ever wondered why you never actually seen one on the streets at the time, it is because the car sucked. The car’s small engine only produced 130 horsepower, and the stainless steel paneling that gave it such a great look was heavy. The dye from the floor mats would rub off onto shoes and the famous gull-wing doors had a habit of becoming stuck. When Johnny Carson took one for a test drive around the block it broke down. Raising capital to build the car was troublesome as well. John Delorean was caught with $24 million worth of cocaine that he wanted to use to fund his dream car. The legal troubles that ensued made him sell his 500-acre New Jersey estate to Donald Trump. John Delorean (the man who also gave us the Firebird and the GTO) died in 2005 in a one bedroom apartment.

Despite the car having a reputation for poor build quality and a less-than-satisfying driving experience, the DeLorean continues to have a strong following driven in part by the popularity of the Back to the Future movies. An estimated 6,500 DeLoreans are still on the road.

Anti-Communist W. Cleon Skousen on This Day in History

 

The Naked Communist on Ebay

This Day in History: American conservative author W. Cleon Skousen was born on this day in 1913. A notable anti-communist and supporter of the John Birch Society, Skousen's works involved a wide range of subjects including the Six-Day War, Mormon eschatology, New World Order conspiracies, and parenting. His most popular works are The Five Thousand Year Leap and The Naked Communist.

In his book The Naked Communist Skousen lists 45 steps that Communists used to destroy a society.

Among those are:

Promote the United Nations as the only hope for mankind.

Capture one or both of the political parties of the United States.

Get control of the schools. Soften the curriculum.

Infiltrate the press. Get control of editorial writing, policy making positions, book reviews, and assignments.

Gain control of key positions in radio, TV and motion pictures.

    

Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

    

Infiltrate and gain control of labor unions.

    

Discredit the Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs.

    

Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats.

    

Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expressions in schools that it violates “separation of church and state.”

    

Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motions pictures, radio and TV.

    

Present degeneracy and promiscuity as normal, natural, healthy.

    

Infiltrate the churches ad replace revealed religion with social religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a religious crutch.

    

Grant recognition and admission of Red China to the United Nations.

    

Permit free trade between all nations regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

    

Provide America aid to all nations regardless of communist domination.

    

U.S. acceptance of coexistence as a only alternative to atomic war.

   

Use student riots to ferment public protests.

    

Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them censorship and a violation of free speech and free press.

    

Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the big picture.

The main subject of the book is an alleged communist plot to overcome and control all of the world's governments through the implementation of social progressivism and by undermining American foreign policy through the promotion of internationalism and pacifism. The early chapters of the book cover the philosophy of Marxist and Soviet communism as well as some of the history of communist power in various countries including the Soviet Union and Cuba.

Reception

The book has been highly discussed by American conservatives Glenn Beck and Ben Carson, the latter of whom stated, "The Naked Communist lays out the whole progressive plan. It is unbelievable how fast it has been achieved."

Buy this book: The Folly of Socialism (40 Chapters) for 99 cents on Amazon

When You Weren't Allowed to Use the Word PREGNANT on This Day in History

 

Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators in America

This Day in History: Almost 72 percent of all television sets in the United States were tuned into I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth on this day in 1953. However, rules were strict back then, so they couldn't use the word "pregnant" opting instead for the French term "Enceinte." Lucy was pregnant for the entire season of I Love Lucy, but they weren't allowed to actually use the word PREGNANT once. They were allowed to tell audiences what was going on: the show got used phrases like "with child," "having a baby," and "expecting."

Old time television at one point couldn't show toilets either. It was not until Leave It To Beaver that people got to see a toilet on TV, and even then they couldn't even show the whole commode. In 1960 Jack Paar walked off the set of "The Tonight Show" in the middle of taping an episode because censors cut a joke that used the phrase "water closet."

You couldn't show shared beds on TV back then either. On TV shows, married couples such as The Dick Van Dyke Show’s Rob and Laura Petrie (Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore) were forced to sleep in widely separated twin beds.

Also: "On the dramatic anthology series 'Playhouse 90,' an episode titled 'Judgment at Nuremberg' has all references to gas chambers eliminated from its re-enactment of the Nazi trials. This is done at the behest of the show's slightly sensitive sponsor, the American Gas Association." Source

Barbara Eden was not allowed to show her navel on I Dream of Jeannie.

The Doors were not allowed to sing about getting Higher on the Ed Sullivan show. Jim Morrison used the word anyways.

Mick Jagger, the lead singer for The Rolling Stones, was asked to change the line “Let’s spend the night together” to “Let’s spend some time together” on the Ed Sullivan show.

Early TV would show Elvis only above the waist because of his gyrating hips. 

Motion Picture Production Code 'punished Betty Boop for her short hemlines and garter, for her sex appeal and for her representation of liberation and fun.' As a result, 'her hemlines were lengthened, her garter removed,' and she began wearing pencil skirts and collars. She also became a nanny, as she transitioned to 'a responsible, maternal ‘mother.’" Source

Warner Brothers' Tweety Bird was once considered too naked for TV. Source

A Porcine Bestiality Death on This Day in History

 On this day in 2014, A Brazilian man, 52, identified only as J.R.N., attempted to commit bestiality with a female pig in Tapurah, Mato Grosso, but was attacked by the animals and wounded in the genitals. He died from a cardiac arrest. His arms and face were also mutilated by the animals. Initially police believed that the man was murdered and disposed of at the farm, but this was disproven as numerous pieces of evidence showed that the man drank alcohol, used a condom and was wearing only underwear. The man worked at the farm for two years.

Bestiality (Zoophilia) is a habit that is illegal in most countries, and generally frowned upon. This does not stop some from trying to commit this heinous act, often to the detriment of the victimizer. 

In 2005. Kenneth P. was being videotaped having his way with a full-size stallions at a farm near the city of Enumclaw, Washington.  During the July 2005 act he suffered a perforated colon, and later died of his injuries. The story was reported in the The Seattle Times and was one of that paper’s most read stories of 2005.

In the distant past, even the animal victim suffered as punishment for these acts as well. 

In 1468, Jean Beisse, accused of bestiality with a cow on one occasion and a goat on another, was first hanged, then burned. The animals involved were also burned. In 1539, Guillaume Garnier, charged with intercourse with a female dog (described as "sodomy"), was ordered strangled after he confessed under torture. The dog was burned, along with the trial records which were "too horrible and potentially dangerous to be permitted to exist" (Masters). In 1601, Claudine de Culam, a young girl of sixteen, was convicted of copulating with a dog. Both the girl and the dog were first hanged, and finally burned.

The Flood that Killed 25,000 on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: The Saint Marcellus' flood killed at least 25,000 people on the shores of the North Sea on this day in 1362.

Over the years there have been many storm surges and floods in the Netherlands. 

A series of devastating storm surges, more or less starting with the First All Saints' flood (Allerheiligenvloed) in 1170 washed away a large area of peat marshes, enlarging the Wadden Sea and connecting the previously existing Lake Almere in the middle of the country to the North Sea, thereby creating the Zuiderzee. It in itself would cause much trouble until the building of the Afsluitdijk in 1933.

Several storms starting in 1219 created the Dollart from the mouth of the river Ems. By 1520 the Dollart had reached its largest area. Reiderland, containing several towns and villages, was lost. Much of this land was later reclaimed.

In 1421 the St. Elizabeth's flood caused the loss of De Grote Waard in the southwest of the country. Particularly the digging of peat near the dike for salt production and neglect because of a civil war caused dikes to fail, which created the Biesbosch, now a valued nature reserve.

The more recent floodings of 1916 and 1953 gave rise to building the Afsluitdijk and Deltaworks respectively. 

Flood control is an important issue for the Netherlands, as due to its low elevation, approximately two thirds of its area is vulnerable to flooding, while the country is densely populated. Natural sand dunes and constructed dikes, dams, and floodgates provide defense against storm surges from the sea. River dikes prevent flooding from water flowing into the country by the major rivers Rhine and Meuse, while a complicated system of drainage ditches, canals, and pumping stations (historically: windmills) keep the low-lying parts dry for habitation and agriculture. Water control boards are the independent local government bodies responsible for maintaining this system.

In modern times, flood disasters coupled with technological developments have led to large construction works to reduce the influence of the sea and prevent future floods. These have proved essential over the course of Dutch history, both geographically and militarily, and has greatly impacted the lives of many living in the cities affected, stimulating their economies through constant infrastructural improvement. 

The Bard of the Yukon, Robert W. Service, on This Day in History

The Cremation of Sam McGee read by Johnny Cash

British-Canadian poet and writer Robert W. Service was born on this day in 1874. Service lived in poverty while travelling the western United States and Canada, but found his niche writing with remarkable familiarity on the Gold Rush. The following poem, The Cremation of Sam McGee, is his most famous poem, and is often read around Halloween: 

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
      By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
      That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
      But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
      I cremated Sam McGee.

Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee, where the cotton blooms and blows.
Why he left his home in the South to roam 'round the Pole, God only knows.
He was always cold, but the land of gold seemed to hold him like a spell;
Though he'd often say in his homely way that "he'd sooner live in hell."

On a Christmas Day we were mushing our way over the Dawson trail.
Talk of your cold! through the parka's fold it stabbed like a driven nail.
If our eyes we'd close, then the lashes froze till sometimes we couldn't see;
It wasn't much fun, but the only one to whimper was Sam McGee.

And that very night, as we lay packed tight in our robes beneath the snow,
And the dogs were fed, and the stars o'erhead were dancing heel and toe,
He turned to me, and "Cap," says he, "I'll cash in this trip, I guess;
And if I do, I'm asking that you won't refuse my last request."

Well, he seemed so low that I couldn't say no; then he says with a sort of moan:
"It's the cursèd cold, and it's got right hold till I'm chilled clean through to the bone.
Yet 'tain't being dead—it's my awful dread of the icy grave that pains;
So I want you to swear that, foul or fair, you'll cremate my last remains."

A pal's last need is a thing to heed, so I swore I would not fail;
And we started on at the streak of dawn; but God! he looked ghastly pale.
He crouched on the sleigh, and he raved all day of his home in Tennessee;
And before nightfall a corpse was all that was left of Sam McGee.

There wasn't a breath in that land of death, and I hurried, horror-driven,
With a corpse half hid that I couldn't get rid, because of a promise given;
It was lashed to the sleigh, and it seemed to say: "You may tax your brawn and brains,
But you promised true, and it's up to you to cremate those last remains."

Now a promise made is a debt unpaid, and the trail has its own stern code.
In the days to come, though my lips were dumb, in my heart how I cursed that load.
In the long, long night, by the lone firelight, while the huskies, round in a ring,
Howled out their woes to the homeless snows— O God! how I loathed the thing.

And every day that quiet clay seemed to heavy and heavier grow;
And on I went, though the dogs were spent and the grub was getting low;
The trail was bad, and I felt half mad, but I swore I would not give in;
And I'd often sing to the hateful thing, and it hearkened with a grin.

Till I came to the marge of Lake Lebarge, and a derelict there lay;
It was jammed in the ice, but I saw in a trice it was called the "Alice May."
And I looked at it, and I thought a bit, and I looked at my frozen chum;
Then "Here," said I, with a sudden cry, "is my cre-ma-tor-eum."

Some planks I tore from the cabin floor, and I lit the boiler fire;
Some coal I found that was lying around, and I heaped the fuel higher;
The flames just soared, and the furnace roared—such a blaze you seldom see;
And I burrowed a hole in the glowing coal, and I stuffed in Sam McGee.

Then I made a hike, for I didn't like to hear him sizzle so;
And the heavens scowled, and the huskies howled, and the wind began to blow.
It was icy cold, but the hot sweat rolled down my cheeks, and I don't know why;
And the greasy smoke in an inky cloak went streaking down the sky.

I do not know how long in the snow I wrestled with grisly fear;
But the stars came out and they danced about ere again I ventured near;
I was sick with dread, but I bravely said: "I'll just take a peep inside.
I guess he's cooked, and it's time I looked"; ... then the door I opened wide.

And there sat Sam, looking cool and calm, in the heart of the furnace roar;
And he wore a smile you could see a mile, and he said: "Please close that door.
It's fine in here, but I greatly fear you'll let in the cold and storm—
Since I left Plumtree, down in Tennessee, it's the first time I've been warm."

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
      By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
      That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
      But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
      I cremated Sam McGee.

Buy my published Kindle book on Amazon for only 1.99

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See also _The Paranormal and Supernatural - 400 Books on DVDrom_ and _Forgotten Tales of Ghosts and Hauntings - 100 Books on CDrom_

The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919

 

The Dark Tide - The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919

The Great Molasses Flood, also known as the Boston Molasses Disaster, was a disaster that occurred on January 15, 1919, in the North End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts.

A large storage tank filled with 2.3 million US gallons weighing approximately 13,000 short tons of molasses burst, and the resulting wave of molasses rushed through the streets at an estimated 35 mph, killing 21 and injuring 150. The event entered local folklore and residents claimed for decades afterwards that the area still smelled of molasses on hot summer days.

A blurb from the book [Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919] states: "Around noon on January 15, 1919, a group of firefighters were playing cards in Boston’s North End when they heard a tremendous crash. It was like roaring surf, one of them said later. Like a runaway two-horse team smashing through a fence, said another. A third firefighter jumped up from his chair to look out a window—“Oh my God!” he shouted to the other men, “Run!” A 50-foot-tall steel tank filled with 2.3 million gallons of molasses had just collapsed on Boston’s waterfront, disgorging its contents as a 15-foot-high wave of molasses that at its outset traveled at 35 miles an hour. It demolished wooden homes, even the brick fire station. The number of dead wasn’t known for days. It would be years before a landmark court battle determined who was responsible for the disaster."

Another molasses spill happened in September 2013 where 1,400 tons of molasses spilled into Honolulu Harbor. Divers in the harbor area reported that all sea life in the area were killed by the molasses, which instantly sank to the bottom of the harbor and caused widespread deoxygenation. Members of various coral species were injured or killed, and more than 26,000 fish and members of other marine species suffocated and died.