It's L. Ron Hubbard's Birthday. Sure, I could just as easily have used Bobby Rydell or Neal Sedaka, except that it really isn't Bobby Rydell's Birthday and Neal Sedaka never invented a religion. We need people to keep inventing new religions just in case all of the existing ones are somehow imperfect in some detail or another. Mr. Hubbard didn't just invent a religion, he did a lot of stuff. For example, he wrote Sci-Fi.
75 million years ago, Xenu, the ruler of a galactic confederacy, gathered billions of the citizens of said confederacy, paralyzed them and then froze them in a glycol-alcohol mix. These victims were then flown to earth on spaceships looking exactly identical to the Douglas DC-8, like the one pictured above, but without the engines. They were then unloaded, stacked around volcanoes, and blown up with H-bombs. Their souls were then captured with electronic ribbons and, essentially, brainwashed. But I won't spoil the ending, in the first place, it's worth tons of dinero.
'Mediocre Sci-Fi', you opine? Not so, for starts, because it is gospel truth, or at least a religious truth of Hubbard's new religion, which, like all religious dogma, is absolute guaranteed truth. And, even if you were to doubt that, I would remind you that there are innumerable corners of the internet where questioning, criticizing, challenging or, Ishtar forbid, mocking even the least atom of any religious dogma is treated as hate speech and you wouldn't want to be some evil hater, now, wouldja?
N.B. I'll deal with Mr. Sedaka later.
This is the anniversary of the start of the eighty years' war, a rebellion of various peoples including the fabulous Watergeuzen against the Hapsburgs, including Philip the Sap, which eventually led to the existence of the Netherlands.
Speaking of Sci-Fi, Uranus was discovered on March 13, and Pluto's discovery was announced on March 13.
Annnd in 1954, General Giap began the humiliation of the Franco-CIA joint neo-retro-colonial force that was trying to recreate French Indochina.
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On this day in history:
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0624 -- The Battle of Badr, known as the turning point of Islam.
1567 - The start of the Eighty Years' War
1697 -- The capital of the last independent Maya kingdom fell to the conquistadors.
1781 -- William Herschel discovered Uranus
1845 -- Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto premiered
1848 – The German revolutions of 1848–1849 began
1884 -- The Siege of Khartoum began
1897 -- San Diego State University was founded (originally San Diego State Collge)
1930 – The news of the discovery of Pluto is announced by Lowell Observatory
1943 -- German forces liquidated the Jewish ghetto in Krakow.
1954 -- Viet Minh forces under Vo Nguyen Giap began the Battle of Dien Bien Phu eventually resulting in a US invasion
1969 – Apollo 9 returned safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module.
1979 -- The New Jewel Movement staged a nearly bloodless coup in Grenada indirectly leading to the later US invasion
1988 – The Seikan Tunnel opened between Aomori and Hakodate, Japan.
2003 – An article in Nature identified the Ciampate del Diavolo as 350,000-year-old hominid footprints
2020 – Breonna Taylor was killed by cops who were forcibly invading her home pursuant to a "no-knock" killing permit
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Some people who were born on this day:
You don't get rich writing science fiction. If you want to get rich, you start a religion.
~~ L. Ron Hubbard
1593 -- Georges de La Tour, painter
1700 -- Michel Blavet, composer & flautist
1720 – Charles Bonnet, naturalist
1781 -- Karl Friedrich Schinkel, architect & painter
1855 -- Percival Lowell, astronomer & mathematician, founder of Lowell Observatory
1864 -- Alexej von Jawlensky, painter
1870 – William Glackens, painter and illustrator, Ashcan School founder
1884 – Hugh Walpole, author and educator
1892 -- Janet Flanner, author & journalist
1902 -- Mohammed Abdel Wahab, singer and composer
1908 -- Walter Annenberg, publisher
1908 -- Myrtle Bachelder, chemist who worked on Mnhattan Project
1910 -- Sammy Kaye, saxophonist, bandleader & songwriter
1911 -- L. Ron Hubbard,
1913 -- William J. Casey, politician & spook
1921 -- Al Jaffee, cartoonist, most notably for MAD.
1925 -- Roy Haynes, drummer & composer
1929 -- Bunny Yeager, photographer & model
1930 -- Blue Mitchell, trumpet player
1932 -- Jan Howard, Opry singer
1933 -- Mike Stoller, songwriter & producer, especially with Jerry Lieber
1938 -- Erma Franklin, did original Piece of my Heart, Aretha's big sis.
1939 -- Neil Sedaka, pianist, singer, songwriter
1942 -- Scatman John, pianist, singer, songwriter
1950 -- Charles Krauthammer, physician & author
1951 -- Charo, singer and guitarist, Cuchi-Cuchi
1956 -- Jamie Dimon, uber capitalist, chief of shadow government of the USA
1960 -- Adam Clayton, U2 bassist
1962 -- Terence Blanchard, trumpet player, bandleader & composer
1966 -- Chico Science, singer, songwriter, founder of manquebeat
1975 -- Glenn Lewis, singer & songwriter
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Some people who died on this day:
The worst enemy women have is in the pulpit.
~~ Susan B. Anthony
1842 -- Henry Shrapnel, general, inventor of shrapnel
1906 -- Susan B. Anthony, activist
1938 -- Clarence Darrow, lawyer
1943 -- Stephen Vincent Benet, poet & author
1990 -- Bruno Bettelheim, quack & mis-educator, shrink
1998 -- Judge Dread, singer who holds record for most songs banned by the BBC
1998 – Hans von Ohain, physicist and engineer
1999 -- Lee Falk, cartoonist, playwright, director & producer
2006 -- Robert C. Baker, anti-gastronome, inventor of the chicken (mc)nugget
2013 -- Cartha DeLoach, feeb, sleaze, Jedgar's gofer
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Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:
L Ron Hubbard's Birthday
Donald Duck Day
Ken Day
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Today's Tunes
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Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto
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Michel Blavet
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Mohammed Abdel Wahab
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Sammy Kaye
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Roy Haynes
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Blue Mitchell
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Jan Howard
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Mike Stoller (got a couple of days, we can do a full retrospective)
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Erma Franklin
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Neil Sedaka
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Scatman John
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Charo
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Adam Clayton
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Terence Blanchard
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Chico Science
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Glenn Lewis
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Judge Dread (not his forte, but safe for work)
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Bonus: Some Lieber & Stoller
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Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. So what's on your mind?
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Cross posted from http://caucus99percent.com
open thread, L Ron Hubbard, Battle of Badr, Uranus, Pluto, Susan B Anthony, Mendelssohn, Mike Stoller, Erma Franklin, Neal Sedaka, Scatman John, Charo