1374 BC Ugarit (Syria), Astronomy: A solar eclipse was observed and recorded in Mesopotamia by Assyrian stargazers, who wrote that ‘the Sun went down in the daytime.’ Ugarit is on the Mediterranean coast of Syria as indicated below.
1469 Florence (IT), History: To Bernardo and Bartolomea was born a son, Niccolò Machiavelli. We know a little about his schooling from Bernardo’s day book of expenses, but after about age fourteen he disappears until taking office at twenty-nine. Births and deaths do not usually make this summary but Machia is an exception.
1841 Auckland, History: New Zealand was declared a colony separate from New South Wales and has stayed separate since, and proud of it!
1958 Truman Capote published ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ and no one noticed Holly Golighty until 1961 when along came Edda Kathleen van Heemstra (Hepburn-)Ruston.
1978 Maynard (MA), Technology: Gary Thuerk of the Digital Equipment Corporation sent a marketing email to 400 users on ARPAnet, which had 2600 users in all. The managers of ARPAnet quickly censured the unwanted solicitation but it was the birth of spam as we know it. The term ‘spam’ was ostensibly derived from a Monty Python skit where a waitress recites a menu in which every item includes spam. It is on You Tube. There is in Honolulu a is a spring festival of …. SPAM, which we have visited to verify its reality. Wikipedia offers an explanation of this oddity. What we know is that Honolulu is only place we have seen spam sushi.
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