1178 BC A solar eclipse coincided with the return of Odysseus to Ithaca ten years after the end of the Trojan War, it is said. Odie took the very long way home. Must have hired a Sydney taxi driver.
1705 Cambridge, Science; Queen Anne knighted Isaac Newton; he was only the second scientist to be so honoured, the first being Francis Bacon.
1912 Calais, Aviation: Harriet Quimby was the first woman to fly across the English Channel. The feat was upstaged by the sinking of the Titanic. She died in a plane crash later that year in Boston. She was no relation to Mayor Quimby.
1943 Basel (CH), Pharmaceuticals. The first acid trip was taken by Dr Albert Hoffman who accidentally (he said) ingested from LSD-25 which he had been synthesising since 1938 in the investigation of the medical effect of lysergic and diethylaminde compounds. He dutifully recorded his experiences in the laboratory log. He did it again to be sure and then published a report of the hallucinogenic drug which caught some eyes later.
1964 London, Music: The Rolling Stones released the first album. These days it is moss and gall stoned.
Skip to content