Citadel Tavern · Legacy archive
This Day in History
-
Re: This Day in History
#4119 May. St Dunstan's Day. Dunstan (c. 909-988) was born near Glastonbury, and in about 943 Edmund I commissioned him to restore monastic life there: from that moment dates the revival of organised monasticism in England, which had ceased to exist since the Scandinavian invasions. Dunstan founded or refounded many abbeys, including Malmesbury, Westminster, Bath and Exeter and in 959 he became archbishop of Canterbury. The present coronation rite of the English sovereign derives from that compiled and used by Dunstan for King Edgar at Bath in 973. -
Re: This Day in History
#4220 May. 'Christopher Columbus' died in 1506... or did he? He is thought by some scholars to be a conflation of two characters, Cristofero Colombo of Genoa (1451-1480) and Cristobal Colon (1460-1506), born illegitimately in the Jewish Ghetto of Majorca, the son of prince Carlos of Viana and Margarita Colon, who took on the identity of the old mariner to protect himself from assassination by his uncle, King Ferdinand, over whose throne he had a claim. Ferdinand had succeeded to the throne in 1461 after the death of the aforementioned half-brother Carlos, who was probably poisoned. -
Re: This Day in History
#4321 May. In 1921 a frog fall during a thunderstorm in Gibraltar covered the north of the colony with thousands of little amphibians. Frogs are the most common animal to fall from the sky mysteriously; such falls have been registered regularly since Pliny and the Annamese historical almanacs. Athenaeus, in The Deipnosophists (4th century AD) , records a frog fall in Greece so serious that the roads were blocked, people were unable to open their front doors and the town stank for weeks. There are records of hundreds of frog falls in the last 200 years. -
Re: This Day in History
#4424 May. In 1889, a cow on the farm of John H Carter of South Simcoe in Canada gave birth to a calf and two lambs, larger and coarser that ordinary lambs, which had tuffs of hair like calves' hair on their breasts. This was reported in the Toronto Globe and the Quebec Daily Mercury, which published statements by well-known stock-breeders that they had examined the lambs and were compelled to accept the story of their origin. As Charles Fort pointed out, to a conventional biologist this yarn is about as preposterous as an elephant producing two bicycles and a baby elephant. -
Re: This Day in History
#4525 May. Attorney Thomas Graves from Shreveport, Louisiana, was trying out his new speedboat with three friends on Lake Bistenau on Memorial Day (25 May) 1987. 'Here I am!' shouted Graves and threw his arms up. A bolt of lightning struck him dead. There was no thunder, lightning, or sign of lightning before the bolt struck, said witness Dan Russell Jr, who added that the remark was directed at Graves' girlfriend, a point omitted by the AP report, which embroidered by saying that he looked skywards as he made it. Graves was working on a case involving a fatal boating incident on that very lake. -
Re: This Day in History
#4626 May. The Feast of St Philip Neri (1515-1595). He experienced an ecstasy in 1544, which left a physical effect on his heart. In great fervour a fist-sized palpitating swelling appeared on his left breast which he would cool against the floor. The post mortem found two ribs broken and thrust outwards, an injury of some age. In 1907 hailstones, containing images of a robed woman, 'like the Virgin of the Hermits', fell at Remirement in France. An enquiry called by the bishop of Saint-DiÈ heard 107 witnesses to the fall. -
Re: This Day in History
#4728 May. St Theodolous the Stylite sat on top of a pillar in Asia Minor for 48 years. He then got a message from God to come down and talk to a clown who told him that his sacrifice had been utterly selfish. He returned, unabashed, to the top of his pillar to repent his selfishness. In 1881 there was a violent thunderstorm near Worcester and tons of periwinkles and hermit crabs came down from the sky, covering fields and a road, for about a mile. It was suggested that they had been dumped by a fishmonger, which greatly amused Charles Fort. -
Re: This Day in History
#4831 May. In 1968, Dr Gerardo Vidal and his wife, driving outside Bahia Blanca in Argentina, went into a dense fog and lost consciousness. They came to on a strange road. Their car was badly scratched, and their watches had stopped. They discovered that 48 hours had passed, and they were in Mexico. A similar thing had happened to a Bahia Blanca businessman in 1959. A strange cloud had enveloped him and his car and the next moment he was standing in the countryside. Hailing a truck, he discovered he was in Salta, over 1,000 kilometres away. His car was still parked outside his hotel. -
Re: This Day in History
#49June 1. The first day of the 15 day annual pilgrimage to St Patrick's purgatory, where the saint showed unbelievers the hell to come by opening the earth beneath their feet. The supposed site, a cave on an island in Lough Derg, Donegal, was established by a Benedictine monk, Henry of Saltry, in the 12th century. Pilgrims were locked overnight in the cave by the prior. If they were found when the gate was re-opened they were received with great joy; if not, they were understood to have perished in the Purgatory, and were never mentioned again. The site is still visited. -
Re: This Day in History
#50June 2. Feast Day of St Elmo (died AD 303?). Elmo, or Erasmus, was supposedly a bishop in Syria who died in exile in Formiae, Campania. A legend said he was put to death by having his intestines wound out of his body on a windlass, a picture of which is his symbol. The resemblance of a windlass to a capstan might explain why he is honoured as the patron saint of sailors. The electrical discharge sometimes seen at the masthead of ships is called 'St Elmo's fire' and was taken as a sign of his protection. It is possible that the Hindenburg airship disaster of 1937 was caused by St Elmo's fire. -
Re: This Day in History
#51June 3. In 1926, the Cornish Echo reported that two young boys had been attacked by a very large and aggressive 'feathered thing' between Mount Hawke and Porthtowan in Cornwall. Hunted and killed, it defied identification. On 17 April 1976, June Melling, 12, saw a menacing 'owl man' near Mawnan church in Cornwall. The following 3 July, Sally Chapman and Barbara Perry, both 14, saw it near the church where they were camping. It was man-sized, with glowing red eyes, grey feathers and large wings, and rose straight up, disappearing into the trees. -
Re: This Day in History
#52June 4. On this day in 1974, Mrs Candelaria Villanueva, 52, had been in the sea with a lifejacket for more than 12 hours after the ship she was on, the Aloha, caught fire and sank 600 miles south of Manila, Philippines. A giant sea turtle appeared beneath her and supported her until her rescue by the navy vessel Kalantia. A smaller turtle climber on her back and bit her every time she felt drowsy and was in danger of submerging her head in the water. After the rescue, the bigger turtle circled the area twice before taking off -
Re: This Day in History
#53June 5. In 1998 school bus driver Lillie Balltrip, driving to a ceremony in Houston to pick up a safe driving award, turned a corner too sharply and overturned the bus carrying 29 other school bus drivers. The driver and passengers went to hospital, but no one was seriously injured, said Larry Yawn, spokesman for the Houston independent School District. Similar cosmic black humour was shown the previous September when a flag was hoisted at Marnham power station on the River Trent to mark the 100th accident-free day. The pulley wheel fell 20ft and hit the flag-hoister on the head. -
Re: This Day in History
#54On June 5, 1968, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles' Ambassador Hotel after claiming victory in California's Democratic presidential primary. Gunman Sirhan Bishara Sirhan was immediately arrested.
On this date:
In 1884, Civil War hero Gen. William T. Sherman refused the Republican presidential nomination, saying, "I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected."
In 1917, about 10 million American men began registering for the draft in World War I.
In 1933, the United States went off the gold standard.
In 1940, the Battle of France began during World War II.
In 1947, Secretary of State George C. Marshall gave a speech at Harvard University in which he outlined an aid program for Europe that came to be known as "The Marshall Plan."
In 1967, war erupted in the Mideast as Israel raided Egyptian military targets. Syria, Jordan and Iraq entered the conflict.
In 1976, 11 people were killed when the Teton Dam in Idaho burst.
In 1981, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported that five homosexuals in Los Angeles had come down with a rare kind of pneumonia; they were the first recognized cases of what later became known as AIDS.
In 1986, a federal jury in Baltimore convicted Ronald W. Pelton of selling secrets to the Soviet Union. (Pelton was sentenced to three life prison terms plus 10 years.)
In 2004, Ronald Wilson Reagan, the 40th president of the United States, died in Los Angeles at age 93 after a long struggle with Alzheimer's disease.
Ten years ago: Joseph Waldholtz, the ex-husband of U.S. Rep. Enid Greene, R-Utah, pleaded guilty to providing his wife false information for her taxes and to falsifying spending reports from her congressional campaign.
Five years ago: Senate Republicans spent their last full day in power before turning control over to Democrats, a change that came about because of a decision by Vermont Sen. James Jeffords to leave the GOP and become an independent.
One year ago: "Monty Python's Spamalot" won three Tony Awards, including best musical; the musical play "The Light in the Piazza" won six prizes, while "Doubt" was named best drama. Spanish teenager Rafael Nadal beat unseeded Mariano Puerta of Argentina 6-7 (6), 6-3, 6-1, 7-5 to win the French Open men's singles title.
Today's Birthdays: Broadcast journalist Bill Moyers is 72. Rhythm-and-blues singer Floyd Butler (Friends of Distinction) is 65. Country singer Don Reid (The Statler Brothers) is 61. Rock musician Fred Stone (Sly and the Family Stone) is 60. Rock singer Laurie Anderson is 59. Country singer Gail Davies is 58. Author Ken Follett is 57. Rock musician Nicko McBrain (Iron Maiden) is 54. Jazz musician Kenny G is 50. Rock singer Richard Butler (Psychedelic Furs) is 50. Actor Jeff Garlin is 44. Actress Karen Sillas is 41. Actor Ron Livingston is 39. Singer Brian McKnight is 37. Rock musician Claus Norreen (Aqua) is 36. Actor Mark Wahlberg is 35. Actor Chad Allen is 32. Rock musician P-nut (311) is 32. Actress Liza Weil is 29. Rock musician Seb Lefebvre (Simple Plan) is 25.
-
Re: This Day in History
#55June 6. Edwin Robinson gradually lost his sight and hearing after a severe head injury in a road accident. Nine years later, on 6 June 1980, he was out looking for his pet chicken near his house in Falmouth, Maine, during a thunderstorm, when he was struck by lightning and knocked out for 20 minutes. (He survived as he was wearing rubber soles.) The next morning he found he could see and hear again and by the end of August he had a full head of hair.
-
Re: This Day in History
#56June 7. The streamline train City of Denver arrived at Chicago in 1937, with a dead trout inside its shattered headlight. It was suggested that the 80mph train had struck an eagle flying across the track with a trout in its beak; but there was no mention of feathers, or blood, or any other vestiges of a bird. This was reported in the Fortean Society Magazine No 2 in October 1937. Awake! (8 Oct 1987) tells of a Boeing 737 out of Alaska's Juneau airport which hit a salmon in mid-air. Again, an eagle was introduced to explain the bizarre collision. -
Re: This Day in History
#57June 9. William Lilly, the English astrologer, was born in 1603. In his autobiography, he tells a strange anecdote of teleportation about fellow astrologer John Evans, a Welshman residing near Aldgate in London. In 1630 or 1631, Evans was asked by Lord Bothwell and Sir Kenelm Digby 'to shew them a Spirit... upon a sudden, after some time of Invocation, Evans was taken from out of the Room, and carried [five miles] into the Field near Battersea Causeway...' The next morning, a labourer found him asleep there. -
Re: This Day in History
#58June 11. In 1988 a 'tall, slim, swarthy man in white robes and a turban' appeared in a crowd who had gathered in the Kawangware slums of Nairobi to hear faith healer Mary Ataska. As a bright star had been observed three times in the light of day, the people recognised the man as Jesus Christ. He blessed them in Swahili before uttering a Hebrew curse and departing in a car driven by Mr Gurnam Singh. They drove to the bus terminal, where the son of God asked Mr Singh to stop the car so He could get out and 'head for heaven'. A photo of the man appeared the next day in Kenya Times. -
Re: This Day in History
#59June 12. In 1987 it was reported that a strange cult had been uncovered in Acilia near Rome. Carpenter Nello Maggi, 61, had died in February from a wasting disease for which he refused to seek help. Neighbours called the police, who took in his sister Lola for questioning. They broke into the bedroom, finding the dead man in bed with the mummified body of his wife Assunta, who had died 10 years earlier. The family were devotees of a holy man called Basilio Roncacci, who had died 40 years earlier and preached that the dead should go unburied and illness untreated. -
Re: This Day in History
#60June 14. In 1988 Mike Birch, taking part in the Carlsberg Single-Handed Transatlantic Race, hit two whales in his trimaran. Five days later, competitor David Sellings found his 25ft sloop Hiccup surrounded by whales, squeaking and snorting. The next day there were 50 or 60 of them. They closed in and smashed the rudder. As he put out a Mayday call and gathered his possessions, the biggest whale smashed the yacht and sank it. Sellings got his dinghy inflated just in time and was later picked up from the air. As soon as the yacht was sunk, all the whales disappeared. -
Re: This Day in History
#61June 15. St Vitus' Day. His bones were supposed to be able to cure St Vitus' Dance, a sort of violent chorea. His nurse Crescentia, who supposedly converted him to Christianity, seems to be an emblem of the Moon goddess, the crescent moon, and his name ('life' in Latin) indicates that he too is a spurious saint. He was especially venerated in Westphalia, where bones said to be his had rested since the ninth century AD, though his legend assigned him to the time of Diocletian, 600 years earlier. -
Re: This Day in History
#62June 16. Bloom's Day - the entire action of James Joyce's Ulysses took place on 16 June 1904. Also... The foreman of the Novelty Iron Works at Dubuque, Iowa, observed two hailstones from a storm in 1882, which melted to reveal 'small living frogs'. On this day two years later, stones fell around George and Albert Sanford as they hoed a field near Trenton, New Jersey. When stones fell again the next day, the men fetched over 40 people from Trenton who saw more falling from a point overhead. -
Re: This Day in History
#63June 17. In 1981 Rev James Gaxele, 43, a Baptist minister, was about to baptise four new members of the church in the Silver Park River, Transvaal. He stepped into the water praying, and as he uttered the words 'Holy Spirit' he sank into the mud and drowned. In March the previous year, baptism also proved fatal in Stockholm. A 62-year-old Pentacostal preacher was about to baptise a boy in front of a congregation of 200. Pentacostal baptism is by total immersion and Swedish fonts are electrically heated. The preacher, standing in the water up to his waist, was handed a microphone and electrocuted. -
Re: This Day in History
#64On this date:
In 1778, American forces entered Philadelphia as the British withdrew during the Revolutionary War.
In 1812, the United States declared war against Britain.
In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte met his Waterloo as British and Prussian troops defeated the French in Belgium.
In 1928, aviator Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean as she completed a flight from Newfoundland to Wales in about 21 hours.
In 1940, during World War II, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill urged his countrymen to conduct themselves in a manner that would prompt future generations to say, "This was their finest hour.''
In 1948, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights adopted its International Declaration of Human Rights.
In 1979, President Carter and Soviet President Leonid I. Brezhnev signed the SALT II strategic arms limitation treaty in Vienna.
In 1981, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart announced his retirement; his departure paved the way for Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female associate justice.
In 1983, astronaut Sally K. Ride became America's first woman in space as she and four colleagues blasted off aboard the space shuttle Challenger.
In 1986, 25 people were killed when a twin-engine plane and helicopter carrying sightseers collided over the Grand Canyon.
Ten years ago: Federal prosecutors in California charged Theodore Kaczynski in four of the Unabomber attacks. Richard Allen Davis was convicted in San Jose, Calif., of the 1993 kidnap-murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas of Petaluma. Two Army transport helicopters collided and crashed during training exercises near Fort Campbell, Ky., killing six and injuring 33.
Five years ago: A judge in Golden, Colo., sentenced two therapists to 16 years in prison each in the death of a 10-year-old girl who had suffocated while wrapped in blankets during a "rebirthing'' session. (Connell Watkins and Julie Ponder were convicted of reckless child abuse in the death of Candace Newmaker.) Retief Goosen won the U.S. Open in an 18-hole playoff with Mark Brooks.
One year ago: U.S. Marines and Iraqi forces battled insurgents in a restive western Iraqi province, killing about 50 militants in the military's latest campaign to stop foreign fighters infiltrating from neighboring Syria. In his Saturday radio address, President Bush said pulling out of Iraq immediately was not an option. Former Texas Congressman J.J. "Jake'' Pickle died in Austin at age 91.
Today's Birthdays: Actor Ian Carmichael is 86. Columnist Tom Wicker is 80. Movie critic Roger Ebert is 64. Actress Constance McCashin is 59. Actress Linda Thorson is 59. Actress Isabella Rossellini is 54. Actress Carol Kane is 54. Rock singer Alison Moyet is 45. Country singer-musician Tim Hunt is 39. Rock singer-musician Sice (The Boo Radleys) is 37. Rhythm-and-blues singer Nathan Morris (Boyz II Men) is 35. Actress Mara Hobel is 35. Rapper Silkk the Shocker is 31. Country singer Blake Shelton is 30. Actress Renee Olstead ("Still Standing'') is 17.
Thought for Today: "The way of a superior man is threefold; virtuous, he is free from anxieties; wise, he is free from perplexities; bold, he is free from fear.'' )
—Confucius, Chinese philosopher (551-479 B.C.).
-
Re: This Day in History
#65June 20. In the 'Great Blow' of 1913, over 250 sailors perished and many washed up on the shores of Lake Huron. One was identified as marine fireman John Thompson by his father, mother and sisters. The dead man bore the tattooed initials 'JT' on the forearm, while scars on the nose and leg, deformed toes and dental peculiarities matched those of the fireman. One sister was convinced - she knew her brother's 'JT' tattoo was topped by an anchor, which was missing on the corpse - but the family overruled her. John Thompson in Toronto read of his own death and returned home to Hamilton. -
Re: This Day in History
#66June 23. In 1626 Mr Mead of Christ's College, Cambridge, passing through the city's market, noticed a battered book which had just been found by a fishwife inside the belly of a plump codfish from King's Lynn. Mr Mead bought the book, a religious tome written by John Firth, who had spent some time imprisoned inside a fish-cellar in Oxford for his religious beliefs! The book was reprinted by the Cambridge Authorities under the title 'Vox piscis' and illustrated with a woodcut showing the book, the fish stall and the knife which had cut open the fish. -
Re: This Day in History
#67June 24. On the sunny afternoon of this day in 1947, airman Kenneth Arnold was flying over Mount Rainier, Washington state, in search of a crashed plane. He saw a strange flash and then a formation of nine silvery discs coming from Mount Baker, flying 'like speedboats on rough water'. Later, he told newsmen that 'they flew like a saucer would if you skipped it across the water'. The term 'flying saucers' was born, the public was ready to interpret the phenomenon as extraterrestrial craft, and the rest is history. -
Re: This Day in History
#68June 28. Henry VIII, the king who destroyed the fabric of monastic England and most of its sacred shrines, was born today in 1491. It used to be thought that he died of syphilis, but it was malnutrition that did him in, according to historian Susan Maclean Kybett; specifically, he didn't eat his greens. It seemed that scurvy, caused by vitamin C deficiency, is the only disease that fits his symptoms - ulcerated legs, bad breath, collapsed nose etc. There was a prejudice at the time that only lower orders ate vegetables; the rich could afford more exiting things like venison. -
Re: This Day in History
#69June 29. St Peter the Apostle's Day. The rock on which the church was founded had roots in the pagan Roman myths of the city God Petra, the Mithraic father of fathers. Petra's symbol, a phallic stone like the Siva lingam of the Hindus, was planted in the middle of the Vatican right up to the late Middle Ages. In 1456, Pope Calixtus III issued a papal bull against Halley's Comet, then visible. He instructed Christendom to pray that this portent of disaster be diverted against the Turks. -
Re: This Day in History
#70June 30. Something fell and exploded in the valley of the Tungska river, Siberia, on 30 June 1908, with a force more violent than the Hiroshima bomb of 1945. The blast was felt 50 miles away, trees were scorched and flattened over an enormous area, radioactivity levels soared, reindeer were incinerated and the skins of many animals broke out in scabs. Microbarograph records showed that the atmospheric shock wave from the blast had circled the Earth twice. Scientists continue to argue whether it was a comet, an itinerant black hole, an extraterrestrial craft or something else. -
Re: This Day in History
#713 July. In 1839 the Academy of Sciences met in Paris to examine a Sicilian peasant boy, aged about 11, called Vito Mangiamele, who astonished them by working out the cube root of 3,796,416 in 10 seconds. Another calculating prodigy, the 18th century Jedediah Buxton, went to see the great actor Garrick in Richard III, but instead of watching the play he counted the number of words uttered by each performer. He knew how many pints of beer he had drunk at all the taverns he had visited over 50 years. Not an ideal dinner guest. -
Re: This Day in History
#728 July. Peter the Hermit, instigator of the First Crusade, died in 1115. He was prone to hearing voices, one of which told him to go to Jerusalem, where he was moved to indignation by the manner in which the Christians were treated by the infidel. He convinced pope Urban II to mount a crusade, and eventually in 1096 a chaotic 'army' of 300,000 set off with Peter at their head, mounted on his mule. They plundered, murdered and burnt their way through Hungary and Bulgaria, and thousands were killed in revenge. The remaining rabble was massacred by the Turks at the battle of Nicaea. -
Re: This Day in History
#7310 July. The wife of Phelan, a British sailor, had her head blown off by a cannon-ball while she was comforting her dying husband on the deck of the frigate Swallow during a battle against the French off Majorca in 1812, leaving their three-week-old child orphaned. There were no other women on aboard, but there was a female Maltese goat, which became a substitute mother and suckled the boy, named Tommy by the crew, for the remainder of the journey. There are many tales of children being raised by animals: most commonly wolves, as in the legend of Rome's founding twins, Romulus and Remus. -
Re: This Day in History
#7411 July. In 1881 George, Prince of Wales (later King George V), as a 16-year-old naval cadet on HMS Inconstant off the Australian coast, wrote in his log book: 'At 4am the 'Flying Dutchman' crossed our bows. A strange red light as a of a phantom ship aglow... Thirteen persons altogether saw her, but whether it was van Deimen of the 'Flying Dutchman' or what else must remain unknown. The Tourmaline and Cleopatra... flashed to ask whether we had seen the strange red light.' At 10:45am, the seaman who first sighted the spectral ship fell to his death. -
Re: This Day in History
#7512 July. In 1738 a strange creature was fished from the water round Exeter. It resembled a man about four foot tall, 'with a Genital Member of considerable Size - with Fins at his thighs, and larger ones like Wings - at his shoulders - and two spout holes behind his eyes.' In 1978 a garage in Galax, Virginia, was bombarded by nails of various sizes for the third day running. Many were observed flying from the front and back doors, sometimes from both at once. Mechanics collected almost 400. The police were completely baffled. -
Re: This Day in History
#7613 July. In 1984, a street in Fort Worth, Texas, developed a 20ft long, two-foot-wide bulge. It moved from side to side like a giant worm before disappearing after about an hour. 'It seemed almost alive,' said a fireman. 'What spooked me was that there wasn't even a crack in the road.' Street crews used jackhammers to break through two inches of asphalt and four inches of concrete, but found no evidence of a gas build-up that might have caused the bulge. Six months later the story emerged in an American tabloid under the headline: 20 Foot Earthworm Terrorizes City ... Swallows Dogs. -
Re: This Day in History
#7714 July. In 1990 the small uninhabited island of Eynhallow off Rousay in the Orkneys played host to 88 tourists. According to the ferry crew, only 86 returned. A thorough search by police, coastguards and helicopter failed to find the missing people. The island was long regarded as a spooky 'vanishing isle', a sort of marine Brigadoon. Alternatively, superstitious locals speculated the couple were actually mermen or mermaids, returning to their ancestral home; it was easy to mistake the Fin Folk for ordinary humans. Or maybe humans had been kidnapped by Fin Folk. -
Re: This Day in History
#7817 July. A classic case of synchronicity (or something) took place on this day in 1975 in Hamilton, Bermuda. Erskine Lawrence Ebbin was knocked off his moped and killed by a taxi. It was the same taxi with the same driver, carrying the same passenger, that killed Erskine's brother Neville in July the previous year. Both brothers were 17 when they died, and had been riding the same moped in the same street. But history never quite repeat itself: the time of the two accidents differed by 40 minutes. -
Re: This Day in History
#7927 July. The Feast of the Seven Sleepers, who refused to worship a pagan statue and fled to a cave in Ephesus. They fell asleep for 250 years, and their awakening was greeted as a miracle. In the Koran, the seven young men are accompanied by a dog which gained such wisdom in its sleep that it sits beside Mohammed in heaven. The Bank of England was incorporated in 1694. The financial genius behind the project was a Scottish pirate called William Patterson. -
Re: This Day in History
#802 August. Feast Day of St Basil the Blessed, a shoe-maker's apprentice who went about Moscow naked, taking goods from the shops to give to the destitute. It was said he rebuked the Czar, Ivan the Terrible. He died in Moscow in 1552. In 1908 a phantom city of assorted houses in different architectural styles was seen for three hours in Ballyconnelly on the west coast of Ireland. Similar apparitions had been seen in that region in 1796, 1797 and 1801.