1204 The Fourth Crusade to defend Christendom and wrest the Holy Land from the Muslim infidel instead sacked Christian Constantinople. Such are the ways of the Christian. It is so much easier to murder, rape, and rob fellow Christians than go all the way to the hostile territory of Asian Minor and encounter infidels on their home turf. Then as now organised religion prefers soft targets. This episode figures in the books about Venice discussed elsewhere on this blog. We saw some of the walls on our visit to Istanbul.
1932 Culver City (CA), Entertainment: ‘I want to be alone,’ she said in ‘Grand Hotel.’ The group of mismatched stagers thrown together became standard fare in cinema. This line became totemic for at least a generation. For those who do not know who said it, well, so be it.
1954 New York City, Music: Bill Haley and Comets recorded ‘Rock Around the Clock’ as the B-side of a record. Since it was Side B they let rip. By a quirk of fate one bored DJ flipped the record and played the B-side as filler, and the switchboard lit-up. It went on to sell a million in one month and made it to those shores. It became the emblem of Rock and Roll music.
1961 Star City (USSR), Space: Yuri Gagarin became the first person in an Earth orbit. We ate at a restaurant in Moscow with his picture plastered on the walls. Below is the ignition of Vostock 1. Imagine sitting on top of that much firepower.
1981 Cape Canaveral (FL), Space: The first flight of a space shuttle, the Columbia with a crew of two, occurred. After Apollo 13 NASA concentrated on near Earth space with the shuttle program because neither Congress nor the Presidency wanted to risk a disaster en route to the moon. Ah huh.
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