1279 BC Ramesses II became Pharaoh of Egypt. Kate has been to Egypt and seen the statues below. It is Ramesses on the left.
1859 In Westminster Big Ben began to keep the time atop St Stephen’s Tower. One story has it that the bell was called ‘Big Ben’ after Sir Benjamin Hall who was London commissioner of works who supervised the construction. The clock is linked to the Greenwich Observatory to keep the time accurate. The smooth motion of the pendulum was once regulated by a stack of coins. A light above Big Ben is illuminated when parliament is in session.
1884 Battle Creek MI, Commerce: Dr John Kellogg patented the cornflake as an anaphrodisiac. Look it up. He was so nuts, as the lengthy entry on Wikipedia shows, that he makes Michel Foucault seem normal.
1929 Ford Motors signed a contract to produce Model A’s on the Volga River. The first order was for 72,000 vehicles. Henry Ford thought this example of capitalism would undermine communism. At the time the USA did not recognise the USSR, and so Ford had no diplomatic assistance.
1997 The Confederation Bridge linked Prince Edward Island with New Brunswick over thirteen kilometres of ice covered waters, a remarkable feat of engineering at the time. It was built as a public-private partnership. Each day 4000 vehicles use it, many of them surely carry the potatoes for which the the Island is famous. Never been there.
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